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What do you do to get better?

Do you compare yourself against people who are better than you? Do you take that knowledge back to where you to inspire other people to be better again?

I’ve talked before here about coaching the mighty Mustangs, my sons under 10’s football team and how it is the best part of my week, a privilege and a pleasure to do.

(I want rabbit on about the fact that we win the league on Sunday).

My son Callum was asked this week to step up.

He was asked to play in a friendly match for the first division team who are like the A-team in our under 10’s group (we’re division 4/5).

I thought he would jump at the chance immediately but he was nervous. He made up excuses to not do it. He was worried about failing, not being good enough or (I really hope not) disappointing me.

When I was young, just a little bit older than Callum, I got to play for Scotland at basketball 13 times.

Every time I returned back to my school to play after I’d been away on ‘international duty’ I was so much faster and better, I could jump higher, run quicker and tackle harder.

The truth is that after you play with people who are better than you then when you step back everything seems like it’s in slow motion.

Alison managed to convince Callum it was a good idea to play, he is also playing for them tomorrow night. He may only get 5 minutes on the pitch, he may get 0 minutes but he will be surrounded by boys who are a bit better than him and will return back to the Mustangs training on Friday and stand a little bit taller and a little bit wider.

It makes me wonder what I’m doing to step up now after learning a lesson over 30 years ago that I’d forgotten.

Time for a little re think on stepping up.

Blog post number: 1490