Believing Is The Portal To Doing
November 6, 2019 at 12:00 a.m.
Believing Is The Portal To Doing
By Roger Grossman-
Schwartz wrote a book in 1959 called The Magic of Thinking Big”, and his main point is that when you believe that what you are charged to do is possible, it’s the first step to doing that thing.
The discussion of ‘believing’ comes up this week because the Warsaw football team is hosting Penn Friday for a sectional championship.
If you have lived here for long, you know the history: Warsaw has never beaten Penn, and they have never won a sectional in football.
Last year the Tigers had the lead at halftime, but lost on the road 16-7.
Penn has beaten Warsaw 12 times, and most of those games were not close.
So why should anyone think that this time will be any different.
According to Schwartz, any effort to do the previously undoable must begin with a strong sense that the challenge is not only doable, but it’s going to happen this time.
Any doubt in the ability to overcome the obstacle makes the obstacle that much more difficult to defeat.
For the Warsaw football team, this means not only the starters and regular contributors need to believe that they can beat Penn, but every young man on the roster must also.
Of course, the game plan the coaches lay out for the players must also be one that instills a sense of hope and carries a positive message.
The players on the team must trust in each other and believe in each other’s abilities.
And, the final thing that must happen is that the atmosphere surrounding the team must be “pollution free.” Doubting or scoffing comments from anyone inside or outside the program are like hand grenades lobbed into an army barracks — they are going to do damage.
Where do the Tigers stand with all of this?
I am blessed to have access to the Warsaw football coaches and players on a weekly basis, and it sure feels like their confidence level is where it needs to be. Their offense is scoring touchdowns at about a 75-percent rate on meaningful drives, their defense is making plays when it matters, and they have the No. 1 or No. 2 kicker in the entire country.
They also have incredibly high confidence levels in what Bart Curtis is teaching them and what their coordinators are preparing them to do. The program is at a point where the players see themselves working with the coaches and not just for them while still maintaining the respect level required to keep the chain of command intact. That’s teamwork on a different level.
And the community’s support is palpable.
Social media sources are buzzing. Alumni are making plans to come home with the hope they will see and take part in a historic moment. The big glass windows on businesses are painted orange, black and white, and their signs all have messages of support and encouragement to the team. The athletic department is selling tickets in advance, which is a clue that they are expecting a big crowd.
Warsaw, collectively, believes.
But here’s the thing: even if all of that is true, it doesn’t guarantee anything except that those self-inhibitors are accounted for at the beginning.
Things that happen during the course of game — things like the bounce of that oddly-shaped football or an official’s call or any one of a hundred things that could go wrong during a high school sporting event could become reverse that believe system.
But Schwartz is correct. If you believe, you have taken the first step to achieving the impossible and the unthinkable.
If you think about it, the more you believe, the less impossible or unthinkable that thing becomes.
As a matter of fact, we can apply that way of thinking to about anything in life—a failing marriage or relationship, a struggling business or non-profit organization and all sorts of entities that face challenges can overcome their challenges if they are willing to go all-in to make it happen.
I don’t know what will happen Friday. Any parent will tell you that it’s a failing proposition to predict what one teenager is going to do, so multiply that by 40 … you get the point.
But I know this: there are a lot of people who are going to show up at Fisher Field at Warsaw Community High School this Friday, and they are hoping to see something that no one has ever seen before.
And if 50 or 60 of the people who feel that way are wearing Tiger football uniforms Friday, it may be a night that none of us will ever forget.
Schwartz wrote a book in 1959 called The Magic of Thinking Big”, and his main point is that when you believe that what you are charged to do is possible, it’s the first step to doing that thing.
The discussion of ‘believing’ comes up this week because the Warsaw football team is hosting Penn Friday for a sectional championship.
If you have lived here for long, you know the history: Warsaw has never beaten Penn, and they have never won a sectional in football.
Last year the Tigers had the lead at halftime, but lost on the road 16-7.
Penn has beaten Warsaw 12 times, and most of those games were not close.
So why should anyone think that this time will be any different.
According to Schwartz, any effort to do the previously undoable must begin with a strong sense that the challenge is not only doable, but it’s going to happen this time.
Any doubt in the ability to overcome the obstacle makes the obstacle that much more difficult to defeat.
For the Warsaw football team, this means not only the starters and regular contributors need to believe that they can beat Penn, but every young man on the roster must also.
Of course, the game plan the coaches lay out for the players must also be one that instills a sense of hope and carries a positive message.
The players on the team must trust in each other and believe in each other’s abilities.
And, the final thing that must happen is that the atmosphere surrounding the team must be “pollution free.” Doubting or scoffing comments from anyone inside or outside the program are like hand grenades lobbed into an army barracks — they are going to do damage.
Where do the Tigers stand with all of this?
I am blessed to have access to the Warsaw football coaches and players on a weekly basis, and it sure feels like their confidence level is where it needs to be. Their offense is scoring touchdowns at about a 75-percent rate on meaningful drives, their defense is making plays when it matters, and they have the No. 1 or No. 2 kicker in the entire country.
They also have incredibly high confidence levels in what Bart Curtis is teaching them and what their coordinators are preparing them to do. The program is at a point where the players see themselves working with the coaches and not just for them while still maintaining the respect level required to keep the chain of command intact. That’s teamwork on a different level.
And the community’s support is palpable.
Social media sources are buzzing. Alumni are making plans to come home with the hope they will see and take part in a historic moment. The big glass windows on businesses are painted orange, black and white, and their signs all have messages of support and encouragement to the team. The athletic department is selling tickets in advance, which is a clue that they are expecting a big crowd.
Warsaw, collectively, believes.
But here’s the thing: even if all of that is true, it doesn’t guarantee anything except that those self-inhibitors are accounted for at the beginning.
Things that happen during the course of game — things like the bounce of that oddly-shaped football or an official’s call or any one of a hundred things that could go wrong during a high school sporting event could become reverse that believe system.
But Schwartz is correct. If you believe, you have taken the first step to achieving the impossible and the unthinkable.
If you think about it, the more you believe, the less impossible or unthinkable that thing becomes.
As a matter of fact, we can apply that way of thinking to about anything in life—a failing marriage or relationship, a struggling business or non-profit organization and all sorts of entities that face challenges can overcome their challenges if they are willing to go all-in to make it happen.
I don’t know what will happen Friday. Any parent will tell you that it’s a failing proposition to predict what one teenager is going to do, so multiply that by 40 … you get the point.
But I know this: there are a lot of people who are going to show up at Fisher Field at Warsaw Community High School this Friday, and they are hoping to see something that no one has ever seen before.
And if 50 or 60 of the people who feel that way are wearing Tiger football uniforms Friday, it may be a night that none of us will ever forget.
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