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Recently we have had some time to nestle in with the family and watch some great NFL football games.  With the playoffs coming to an end and the Super Bowl fast approaching there has been some fun conversations in our home revolving around the exciting game of football.  

All of this activity has gotten me pondering some of the lessons I can remember from my football days while at Yosemite Union High School in the quaint little mountain town of Oakhurst, CA.  While playing ball at Yosemite High these lessons seemed only to apply to the game we were playing at the time but for me and my fellow teammates the wisdom our coach was imparting to us on the field was important "life lessons" that could be carried throughout our lives on and off the field.  Many of these lessons on the field have influenced the way I approach commodity futures trading as well.

Here's a few thoughts I gleaned from our team's head coach, Steve Raupp, that hopefully will get all of us well on our way to a positive and confident start as we begin to "kick-off" this amazing year before us.

Practice to win- don't just go through the motions, think of every practice as "the real deal".  This is the time to be in the present moment, totally focused on perfecting the skills that will ultimately bring us the result we're looking to achieve as a team on game day. (Analogous of paper trading the commodity chart formations?)

Conditioning- Coach Raupp said, "our opponents may be larger than us or possess more skill than us but one thing is for sure; they will not be able to match our physical agililty!"  We trained harder and pushed each other to be as conditioned as any team could be, believing that anything we lacked could eventually be overcome by massive effort. 

Take Ownership- the message we were receiving from our coach and the coaching staff was that we had to take ownership of every action, every play on the field, including the bad ones.  As individual members of a unitized team we had to mentally take ownership of that field before we ever stepped onto it for the Friday night game.  This mindset took away our tendencies to make excuses or place blame because we understood that whatever our team's objective, it was ultimately our responsibility to see it through.

Rookies Never Last- when called a rooky there's a couple of things a player can do.  He can fold under the pressure and allow the humiliation to tear him down emotionally, eventually to be seen leaving the game or the rooky can gather his intestinal fortitude, determination, and willpower to learn what needs to be learned and drive himself forward, never to be thought of as a rooky again.

Sell Out- I can still here Coach Raupp saying, "If you're out here on the field trying to survive then you can pack it in to the locker room and hang up your gear!  I need every one of you to give your team what it deserves, I need you to sell out!"  This was a call to both emotional & physical action, to "leave-it-all-on-the-field".  There was no talk allowed by the coaching staff that had even a hint of half hearted, willy-nilly, maybe-we'll-just-get-by attitude in it.  It was all or nothing and "sell out" became a core belief amongst the team.

Review- monday afternoon practices often began in a classroom with the team and coaching staff reviewing Friday night's game on film.  This wasn't loafing time, it was serious review of the plays we had executed effectively.  This also included a hard look at what we had done wrong, and what could be done to take corrective action when we were back on the field.  Reviewing film was a time for self assessment and honesty from each of us, a time when we had to swallow pride in order to recognize what had to be fully learned from the experience.  That's what made the experience on the field valuable--because we were determined to learn from it!

This is but a small number of examples I've learned from Coach Raupp and the game of football but I think that is one of the reasons I enjoy watching an occasional game because there is so many analogies that can be drawn from the activity on the field to that of my daily life. 

From commitment to family to persistence at work to building our dreams with passion and maintaining the patience to recognize that it's all a process...caring, sharing, loving, and the business of overall living requires the development of attributes that correlate in many ways to those we see in the players on the 100 yard playing field. 

Some people say it's just a game, but really, isn't that what life is in a way, a game?  I like to think of life as the greatest game of all offering each of us opportunities to learn and grow, if we'll only take the time to see them. 

I hope you will consider and create life enhancing analogies from the positive experiences in your own life and "kick-off" 2010 with renewed resolve and enthusiasm for your bright future!

Our best to you, Scott


*During my senior year Coach Raupp and his assistant coaching staff lead our team to victory as we became the North Sequoia Division champions for the first time in our school's history.  The year was 1985.