The Fundamentals

It doesn’t matter what you are doing you can always find a way to do it better. In a phone conversation with my dad yesterday we discovered we are in a similar spot in life. Well, actually we have been in a similar spot for a while now. He too had a business shake up and a bout with cancer over the last two years. Now that we are both thankfully on the other side of some of those more stressful days we are beginning to refocus on areas in our life that bring us joy. He has a love of leather working and I have a love of writing. What we are both learning is the more involved you become in something the less you realize you know.

Dad -n- Me 2016

Recently it has been brought to my attention that there are words not to be used when writing. Who knew? Obviously not me, I have no idea where I was when they taught these no no words in writing class as a youngster. I mentioned it to my family the other night at the dinner table and my 13-year-old began to rattle the words off as if they were second nature. The list is quite extensive and includes: very, that, like, really, you, feel, think, as, a lot, sort of/kind of. Looking back at my blog posts it is grossly apparent I didn’t get the memo. I use these words all the time! While reading the list I began to laugh out loud because if I went back and edited my posts and removed all the errant words I’m not sure there would be any words left!

The more involved one becomes in something the easier it is to forget or maybe realize, they never even learned the basic fundamentals. The very things that exist as a foundation for greatness are being neglected or left out altogether.  In researching examples of honing your craft I came across a book written about Vince Lombardi. He was the new head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1961. In the previous season, the Packers had narrowly lost the NFL Championship game. A game in which they had held the lead. What follows is an excerpt from an article by James Clear:

;In his best-selling book, When Pride Still Mattered: A Life Of Vince Lombardi, author David Maraniss explains what happened when Lombardi walked into training camp in the summer of 1961.

He took nothing for granted. He began a tradition of starting from scratch, assuming that the players were blank slates who carried over no knowledge from the year before… He began with the most elemental statement of all. “Gentlemen,” he said, holding a pigskin in his right hand, “this is a football.”

Lombardi was coaching a group of three dozen professional athletes who, just months prior, had come within minutes of winning the biggest prize their sport could offer. And yet, he started from the very beginning.

The end result of taking his players back to the fundamentals?

The 1961 season was the beginning of Vince Lombardi’s reign as one of the greatest football coaches of all-time. He would never lose in the playoffs again.

Vince Lombardi

Fundamentals are the roadmap to greatness. Simple steps utilized over and over again lead to greater understanding. When the process becomes clearer we begin to get better at what we are doing which in turn brings confidence and greater results. Who doesn’t want to be better at participating in activities that bring them joy? If you want to win at life you have to work for it. No matter what you are trying to achieve, or how many times you have to start over. The better you are at the basics, the better you will be at playing the game.

What are some fundamentals you could brush up on?