The other day I was reminded of a quote from Lou Holtz, the Hall-of-Fame football coach. Did you know he was the only coach to lead six different programs to bowl games and the only coach to take four different programs to the top 20 rankings? Quite a success! He was talking about the four things that any organization needs to be number one.
“First,” he says, “you have to make a commitment to excellence.”
Second is complete attention to detail. “It is the teams that play strict attention to little things that win,” says Holtz.
The third thing is to have sound fundamentals. “You can't be bored with such basic things as blocking and tackling.”
The fourth requirement is discipline. “Virtually nothing is impossible in this world if you just put your mind to it and maintain a positive attitude.”
These four requirements can apply to an organization, a football team, even us as martial artists, or us as moms, dads and students.
A commitment to excellence is our steadfast desire to do our best in any situation. By being committed, we are already on the path; nothing should sway us in any other direction to do anything else other than what we have determined is our action.
A commitment requires complete emotional and intellectual determination to execute our intended action. And if excellence is our action, then certainly good results will follow.
Attention to detail takes a special desire to get it all right. I remember when I was in high school I worked at the school in the summer helping doing maintenance work. I helped a lot with an older gentleman named Carl who was a master painter. He could paint the trim around windows and doors and never put a drop of paint out of place. However, if he ever did, no matter how small the drop, he would always take time to prepare a rag and remove the insignificant spot of paint. He painted in places where I’m certain no one would take the time to look because he had an extraordinary personal commitment to excellence.
Watching a master at work can cause you to be amazed at the skill and talent displayed. Sometimes we only assume that natural talent is all that is portrayed. We tend to forget that most great masters did something very early in their career: they mastered the fundamentals.
Having sound fundamentals separates the good from the great. It allows the somewhat talented to overcome those with natural raw ability. It allows a person to have confidence in what they have learned and allow them to have a foundation to build on to learn new and more complicated things.
This is why we practice the basic techniques over and over again. This is why we tell ourselves we can always improve something a little more. Talent will only get you so far, but sound basics will take you to the destination.
I remember a class where Grandmaster Lim was teaching and said something like, “I am just now understanding grab art number 1.” I thought, “Oh no, I am never going to learn anything.” But what he was really saying: There is always more to learn.
If we ever tell ourselves we have learned all there is to know about something, we have just stunted our ability to learn. And that may very well hurt us when we are faced with a situation that required just a little more knowledge to overcome.
I think of discipline as the core glue that holds together our character. It is what allows us to practice over and over again because we know we need to. It is the iron will behind our commitments to do something. It is the foundation to our desire to pay attention to the details.
Many people with goals and dreams lack the discipline to do what is necessary. Therefore their goals are simply hopes and wishes based on chance. Those that accomplish their dreams require discipline to make a plan and then have the discipline to follow their plan’s execution.
It’s never too late to practice the basics a little more. It’s never too late to make a slight adjustment to a technique to improve it just a little more. And it’s never too late to make a commitment to doing your best at everything you do.
Let’s make today a day about excellence in everything we do.
Black Belt Excellence Every Day, Every Way!
-Sigung Kelly
Profession-Operations Manager at a Quality Control company
