Every week I get a couple messages from younger athletes asking for some advice on their current situation and maybe some struggles they are having in their sports career. This week I got a message from a younger athlete dealing with feeling rejected by coaches and being looked down upon. His exact message was this, “hey bro if you don’t mind could I get some advice? Ive been struggling during practices and I feel like never gonna get good because the coaches would just discard me and think of me as paperweight. I’m not the fastest nor do I have the best footwork. I had a coach one time look at me up and down and just laugh at me right after. It just kills your confidence man. I really don’t know what to do.” Well, I’ll tell you first what not to do and that is to sit here and pout about your current situation. I can tell you countless stories of being laughed at and look down upon for having big dreams and goals of playing in the NFL. I’ll tell you one thing, I remember every single instance of being laughed at and made fun of for chasing my goals of playing in the NFL. Why? Because it hurts and I’m sure you are feeling that same way right now based on the question you have for me. It hurts to have people who laugh at you. Use that as fuel. I’m thankful for these people that laughed at me because it made me work 10 times harder in order to accomplish my dreams of playing in the NFL. So use that as fuel to get to where you want to go. Don’t let others discourage you or disrespect you for working hard and having goals. Now I’ll give you my personal examples. One of the first instances was when I was a sophomore in high school walking with a couple of teammates. One of my teammates older brother was playing at a division college program and I asked him how he did it because I wanted to play at a division 1 college. His response was laughing in my face telling me that there was no way that was possible. That is just one instance and I can go on and on. In the book outwitting the devil by Napoleon Hill. One of the tactics the Devil uses is discouragement and judgment from others. What if I do all this and fail? What will people think if I do end up not attaining my goals just like they said? This thinking causes us to hesitate instead of double down on what we are doing and make it work out. I would rather live with failure and lessons rather than the pain of regret and not knowing if I was able to do it. My final advice to this young cat is this, do the work each day. Instead of thinking and wasting energy on what all the other people are thinking of you. Pour your energy into the work. You’ll be so distracted by the work you are putting in that it won’t even matter who’s laughing at you. One day they’ll probably see you living your dream or better yet doing something even better that you would of never thought would happen just because you put in the work consistently. I’ll tell you one thing, you’ll never forget that instance of someone laughing at you or shooting down your dreams no matter how hard you try. Use it as fuel and wish them the best. Keep going!
Photo: This week at the olympic training center in San Diego! Running the obstacle course for Cannon photography product testing. Might have a sick event coming here soon! Keep challenging yourself!
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