What will be your legacy?

This past weekendI experienced both truimph and defeat at the Leadville 100 run event. I reread this blog post from 2 years ago and was quickly reminded that we are not our failures, nor successes. Who we are is determined by the actions we take to risk failure and success! I attended the University of Texas Law School graduation this weekend. The president of the graduating class during his speech asked the students "What will be your legacy?" I sat at the edge of my chair. What an important question to throw out there to each of the students and the attendees to provoke thought and analytical interpretation. Of course, this sort of question is right up my alley. When I use to coach high school girls I use to ask them "What will be the story that people tell about you?" There's nothing like a teen-age girl staring blank at you when you force them to think beyond boys, cell phones, skinny jeans and what to do on a Friday night. However, this was an important question asked of me when I was a teenager and have lived with it in the forefront of my mind ever since. I would ask the girls this question for one reason only and that was to force them to think about the caliber of their effort on the field. I had learned from the head coach of the soccer team that a team would be more successful if the players were picked according to the effort that they gave and not necessarily the skill that they possessed. And success he explained did not always mean winning the game, but more about how hard you played to attempt to win. Practice he said was more of value than the actual game for you played a game once a week and you practiced at least 5xs a week. I didn't understand this philosophy at first; it was not too long ago that I too thought of practice as a time to play a sport that I loved and to joke around with my friends. Oh, and to flirt with the boys on the sidelines! But once I began to coach, to be responsible for conditioning these girls to endure 90 minutes of play in 90% humidity, I began to fully grasp what coach was teaching. He said you could tell the caliber of a player by the way they practiced. As we would sit and talk for hours in the locker room, he coached me on what to look for when picking a team. What time does the girl show up for practice and what time does she leave? Does she give 100% effort in every drill? Does she listen to directions? Does she come ready to play? Is she a leader or is she a follower? Coach believed that a player's character was revealed in practice and that character was just as important as ball skill. I know that the biggest frustration I would have with the girls pertained to the effort that they exerted when out on the field, whether in a game or just in practice. Most of the girls did not understand the importance of follow through. When they would lose the ball to the other team in most cases the fight stopped there, rather than running after the player to win back the ball. I would yell, "give me some effort," and they would glare right back at me with daggers for eyes. A few girls did understand though and when they would lose the ball I would see them sprint down the field after their opponent until they caught them and knocked the ball right out from underneath their feet. It was that sort of play and valiant effort that would take a girl off the bench and put them in the starting line up. As I sat there at the UT Graduation and listened to the speaker talk about the importance of the legacy you leave behind, I couldn't help but reminisce about those days with the girls on the field and the impact that the head coach had on me. What will be the story that people tell of me? How much effort do I put forward every day to reach my goals, to pursue my desires, and continue to move forward in life? Do I come to practice each day ready to play? Am I a leader or a follower? Do I have follow through? I left graduation contemplating the depth of the effort that I put forth in each area of my life, whether it's in the gym, at the office, in the classroom, or at home. It's one thing to want, to hope or to wish to be successful. It's a whole other ball game to come to practice ready to play!