DIAL UP YOUR CHILD’S IMPROVEMENT

At some point in your life, you’ve probably heard the phrase, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” It simply means that greatness takes time. It’s a plea for patience, and it’s the truth, too – sometimes the only way something great or important can be built is through a long, slow process. The problem is, today we’re living in a world that’s moving in the opposite direction.

Our culture today values speed, ease, and convenience....sometimes more than almost anything else. You might call it a microwave society. What we want, we can usually get right away. We’ve been trained to expect that things will be done this way, and when they aren’t, it can be easy to lose our patience or label something ineffective or obsolete. Need an example? Take a minute and think back to the early days of dial-up internet. Remember that long, slow process? First, you’d click on the internet icon. Then you’d wait while it loaded. Next, you’d hit the ‘Connect’ button, and wait some more. There was the dialing, then the waiting. Then some clicking and screeching noises. Then finally, after even more waiting, you made it online. Maybe you’ve forgotten the struggle that was the dial-up connection. Looking back, it was brutal.

In reality, though, the dial-up connection wasn’t brutal back in the internet’s infancy because that’s just the way things were – it was the reality of how the process worked. It seems difficult now because we’ve come to expect the speed, ease, and convenience of today’s broadband wifi, but back then, I didn’t lose my mind when it took forever to get online. I’d probably sit patiently and wait for the connection to be established, or maybe go do something else while I waited.  It’s embarrassing to admit, but I’m irritable if the internet connects even a little slowly today, or if my ability to load or stream something isn’t immediate.

But It’s important for each of us to understand that in this world of speed and convenience, there are still some important things that can’t be built in a day or achieved in the blink of an eye. If you’re working to raise your young athlete to become a champion in today’s culture, you’ll have to accept that their growth and development can’t happen overnight.

If you’re working to raise your son to become a champion athlete and man in today’s culture, you’ll have to accept that his growth and development can’t happen overnight.

If you are really interested in helping your child reach their full potential, both on the athletic field and beyond, then you’d better see clearly the long process it entails. There are a number of skills they’re going to need in order to become their best, and none of them will be magically bestowed on him or her with the snap of a finger. For both the important physical and mental abilities of a successful athlete, there’s only one way your child can get all they need to reach their full potential: the long way.

Think of it like this: your responsibility is to help your child get all they need in order to become their very best – to help them try, to fail, to learn, to understand, to respond, to grow, and eventually, to improve – but that download is only available through a dial-up connection. It’s going to be a long, and slow, and sometimes painful process – especially when you’re used to easy, quick, and convenient. He or she will get there, if you see to it, but only one small step at a time. If you understand this reality and embrace this process, then you can use the experiences in their life today to help them get better. Most of all, you can enjoy knowing that they are improving – the only way it can be done –  and that you’re helping to make it happen.

 Living in and focusing on a process of growth and development, in any area of our lives, requires that we balance an urgent dedication to today with the patience required for the long haul. No matter their age, there are important, meaningful lessons existing in the experiences your child has today, lessons that can and must be used to move them forward on the journey toward their very best. At the same time, you must remain patient and dedicated to the process. You’ve got to be relentless today in helping your child take one step forward on a journey that lasts many miles. 

That’s why raising a champion isn’t easy work. Like many sports parents, you can bail on the process anytime. You can lose patience, get irritated, or label the whole thing ineffective or obsolete. You have that right. But bailing on the process means accepting the fact that your child won’t reach his potential. It also means accepting the fact that you're part of the reason why.

So work hard to help your young athlete understand the value of the process. It’s harder than ever for kids to understand the reality of what greatness requires, so it’s our job to help them. Remember, they never knew life with just a dial-up connection. The priorities in the world of today’s young people, even more than the rest of us, are built around convenience, speed, and immediacy. Most kids today are trained to believe that if Rome wasn’t built in a day, then it’s probably because the guys building it must have stunk. It’s your job to help your child understand the truth: that sometimes a long, slow process is the only way we can build something really important. And that you, my child, are really important.