PREPARED AND READY

Legendary college basketball coach Bob Knight famously said, “The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that's important.” Branch Rickey was a ground-breaking major league baseball manager and general manager whose teams won four World Series titles. He said, “Success is the place in the road where preparation meets opportunity.” And George Allen, the Hall of Fame, Super Bowl-winning football coach, called winning “the science of being totally prepared.” Different coaches, different sports, different eras...but a resounding universal belief: preparation is paramount.

Dig deep into the lives and experiences of successful people in any area of life and behind their elite-level performances, you’ll likely find a commitment to elite-level preparation. This is one of many ways the very best separate themselves from everyone else. Most people aren’t committed to preparing, because preparing is tough. It requires a lot of time - often a lot more time than the performance itself. Preparing can be boring and mundane. And preparing is rarely acknowledged or celebrated. The bottom line is most people want to perform but aren't willing to prepare. They want the reward without doing the work. Champions, though, understand that in both our moments of challenge and our moments of opportunity, how we prepare determines how we perform.

Consider, for example, the challenges that our current pandemic has created in and around our country. On a national level, our government’s performance in the midst of this crisis isn’t really a reflection of our leaders’ desire here in the big moment. I’m confident they’re all doing the best they can. Their performance is more realistically a reflection of their commitment to preparing before this moment arrived. Hindsight is always 20/20, and few people foresaw that something like this was possible, let alone imminent (although some - like Bill Gates back in 2015 - seemed to). But the more of our time and resources we would’ve devoted to preparing for something like this - long before it ever occurred - the better we’d be performing in the midst of this crisis today. How much better would we be if we'd gotten busy preparing when Bill Gates told us to?

You could probably make the same point for people on a personal level. Those people who’ve been intentional about developing and cultivating their resilience, their adaptability, and their response to adversity are probably performing at a higher level than those who never made a similar investment. Those who are navigating this storm effectively have more than the will to succeed. Everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to succeed - long before it was needed - that's setting them apart today

This unprecedented time also illustrates the power of preparing, not just for our challenges, but for our opportunities as well. This pandemic has created opportunities for organizations and individuals to step forward and solve problems, create products, or provide services that are suddenly in high demand. Who’s been able to take advantage of the moment? It’s not those who want it the most. It’s those who’ve prepared the best. Those people now find themselves at that place in the road where all that preparation meets all this opportunity.

Here is the key takeaway: one of the important reasons champions win is that they recognize that wanting to win is not enough. When you recognize that fact, you start thinking more like a champion yourself. You recognize that we don't always see the big moments in life coming, and once they're here, it's too late to get ready. You've got to be ready. What matters then is how you’ve prepared in the days, weeks, months, or even years leading up to that moment. You recognize that who you decide to be and what you decide to do here today are really important. It gives you a sense of purpose and urgency for this day, even if this day doesn't seem all that significant. It validates that tomorrow will thank you for the investment you made today.

So let me challenge and encourage you to do what champions do. Take advantage of today. Put in the time and do the work, even if it’s boring or mundane. Accept that your sacrifice probably won’t get the acknowledgement or celebration it deserves. Trust the process and know that your moment is coming. Then, when it does, you’ll know you're prepared, and you'll be ready to perform.