Tag: soccer

Thoughts for Thursday

+ Yesterday, I read a fascinating article about Erling Haaland, the famous Norwegian footballer (soccer player) who quickly became an American darling when he was competing for Norway, in this past summer’s World Cup. Erling Haaland, at 6’5″ is often compared to a viking, or the character “Thor”, with his long blond hair and distinctive look. If you still don’t know whom I am talking about, think about the guy seen leaving America, entering an airplane, with a stuffed raccoon with a liquor bottle, which he had proudly purchased in Texas. A man after my own heart, Haaland is known for his vast collections of many different things. When asked about this, he said, “Everything I collect kind of has a memory in it. It sounds stupid, but it just gives me a kind of joy.”

It’s not stupid, Erling. Joy is never stupid. And this is what he said about the joy that he found in America and Americans:

” . . .We don’t understand how big, actually the U.S. is in terms of size, the people, and everything. . . I went to a place I didn’t know much about, but the way people were and how kind they were, and how happy they were . . . How they look at life was just fantastic.”

This thrilled me, particularly in a time when there seems to be so much cyncism about America and the direction which we are going in. Our institutions have deserved and earned a much-warranted critical eye, but our real strength in America, lies in our many, many diverse people, and in our vast, beautiful land. I recently read that skepticism is healthy and wise and discerning, but it remains open-minded. Cynicism already has its derisive, pessimistic mind made up. Sometimes seeing how others look at us, reminds us of who we really are inside. Our visitors saw we Americans, as kind, happy, and optimistic. If you need reminded about who YOU really are, ask your loved ones how they see you. Don’t be a cynic about what they say is amazing and unique about you. In fact, don’t even be skeptical about it. Use it as a template to be your best self, always. America showed its best self to our World Cup visitors this summer, and we all got to savor and revel in, what we saw reflected back to us.

And the final gem which I got from this Erling Haaland interview was what his favorite football manager told him to do in order to become, and to remain a great footballer:

“Do it with passion. When you’re working, stay fully focused. But when you’re done working, think about something else. Don’t think about football. Think about whatever, just not football, so you don’t get tired of it.”

This is such a good reminder that you can suffer burnout, even from the things that you love to do. As always, the best advice gets whittled down to Stay In the Present Moment.

+ And a new one for our thought museum, here at Adulting – Second Half:

“When you protect your purpose, your purpose protects you.” – Jay Shetty

I’m still thinking about this one. I would love to get your takes on this quote, in my Comments.

Have a fabulous weekend, my friends. If you’ve missed my blogging, it’s because I have been busy with organizing and cleaning out – a project that got put on the backburner with the many big celebrations our family had this year. This feels good to me. As one, like Erling Haaland, who loves to collect things, this project is a relatively daunting one, but the joy of it, is experiencing the memories once again, attached to various objects. (Don’t worry, I don’t keep everything. I don’t feel attached to dirty paper bags or broken beach chairs.)

Most important, remember the assignment: Without a cynical (or even a skeptical) eye, ask your loved ones what is best about you, and believe it, and live up to it.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Know Your Personnel

Years ago, our middle son played on a travel soccer team with a lot of the same boys year after year. One of the players he played with was an extra-tall, sturdy, solid, brilliant young man who would later go on to college at one of the military academies. This young man was a great defender because he was strong, stubborn and he was hard to get past. He was like a wall. But, he wasn’t fast. He wasn’t tricky and nimble. The defender position, standing solidly, right by the goalie, was the perfect position for this player.

In one game, one of the players passed the ball to this young man and then criticized him when things went awry with an opposing player who was small and crafty and quick. “Know your personnel!” is what my son’s solid teammate loudly barked back to his critical teammate, and rightly so. The teammate seeing the quick and nimble opponent right by the tall, lumbering defender should have known to pass the ball elsewhere. We parents all got a chuckle out of the “Know your personnel!” comeback and so did our son’s team. It became a catchphrase that was often used by all of the team, and even our own family adopted the saying. Here I am, years later, writing about it.

Being fully cognizant and aware of your own strengths and weaknesses, and the strengths and weaknesses of those with whom you live with or you work with, and utilizing these strengths and weaknesses effectively, can make the difference between creating a masterpiece or creating a disastrous mess (all with the same group of people). Taking advantage of placing people with particular strengths matched to tasks that lend to those strengths, is a win-win for everyone. Knowing your personnel, helps to manage everyone’s expectations and stops setting people (including yourself) and projects up for failure.

Know your personnel. Be observant. Be humble. Be amazed and appreciative. Be open to different ways of doing things. Be impressed with the well-oiled machine of a group or an entity that knows their personnel very well, and has strategically placed everyone in positions where they can blossom and grow. When you find yourself disappointed, ask yourself, was this a situation where I ignored what I already knew about my personnel? Can I use this knowledge for better decisions in the future? KYP – you know me. Knowledge is power. Know your personnel.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

It’s Your Lucky Day

Not too many years ago, I learned of the superstition that people should say, “Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit” on the first day of every month to have good luck that entire month.  Guess what I texted to my family this morning?  Guess what is already written on the first day of every month of my 2019 calendar?  Readers, I think you should take a pause and say, “Rabbit.  Rabbit.  Rabbit.”, right now.

I am a superstitious person.  I admit it.  Some people would claim that being superstitious is silly and unfaithful.  I disagree.  I’m often a very serious person.  I’ve been told to “lighten up” more than once in my life.  I am extremely faithful in the higher powers of the Universe that I call “God.”  To me, my superstitions are just a reminder that there are higher forces taking care of us.  They are a reminder that there is more to this Earth plane than meets the eye.

Sports fans and players are typically very superstitious people.  My son played soccer with a young man who always wore his team shorts backwards on game days.  His mother explained that one day he had an amazing, breakout game and it was on a day that he had rushed out the door, accidentally putting his shorts on backwards.  From that day on, he thought it was better luck for him to play with his shorts on backwards and so he did, for the rest of his soccer career.  I am willing to bet that a majority of professional sports players wear certain items, or do certain rituals before each game that they play, for good luck purposes.

Here’s another quote that I don’t agree with:

“Superstition is the death of a thinking mind.” – Dr. T. P. Chia

If I think that saying “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit” at the beginning of every month will make me luckier, isn’t there a good chance that the powers of positive thinking will help make it so?  Or that I will look for lucky happenings in my life to prove my superstition?  This perspective, in turn, will make me feel luckier by seeing all of the goodness in my life, which will only help me to attract more luck and goodness with the positive vibe that I am emoting as a “lucky person.”  The mind, indeed, is a very powerful tool.

I think superstition only becomes dangerous and silly and foolish and unfaithful when it is used in a fear mongering sense.  If I forgot to say “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit” today and I believed that it doomed me to bad luck all of November, that would not be a healthy.  Some people might even argue against that thought, though.  Bad things happen to good people.  Often there is no explanation known to us as to why that statement is true.  Perhaps it would feel comforting to think that doing or not doing one of our superstitious habits gave us more control in our lives than we really have, so if something bad happens to us, we have something to blame it on.  “I should have said, “Rabbit. Rabbit. Rabbit.” or “I should have worn my shorts backwards.”  Again, our superstitions can make us feel more empowered and secure and those are positive feelings.  Feeling powerful and secure, makes us attract or at least notice, more of the positive forces and happenings in our lives.

People often discount superstitions as “old wives’ tales.”  The older I get, the more I think “the old wives” may have been wiser than we think. They may have understood reverse psychology or the power of positive thinking before it became a book.  Maybe we should call them “old wise tales”.  Anyway, one more time for extra luck – “Rabbit.  Rabbit.  Rabbit.”