Tag: Nick Saban

March Madness

I married a basketball nut. This is her most wonderful time of the year.

I enjoy sports, too, but for deeper and more practical reasons. I’ve long considered football (the American variety) a metaphor for life. For example, Nick Saban’s “process” is one of my key clinical tools:

“Don’t think about winning the SEC Championship. Don’t think about the national championship. Think about what you needed to do in this drill, on this play, in this moment. That’s the process: Let’s think about what we can do today, the task at hand.”1

The Washington Post recently published a long profile on Kim Mulkey, the women’s basketball coach at LSU. She’s unquestionably great in objective terms—four national championships—however, this paragraph stopped me cold:

“As a head coach, you’re responsible for so many people; you’re taking on a role that leaves a very lasting impression,” a former Baylor player says. “You might be able to win us a championship, but are people going to want to come back and see you?”

That’s the side of coaches (and leaders more generally) that people seldom see. Nobody writes stories about that.

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Credit: North Park University; Chicago, Ill.

But I’ve seen it. Joan’s a basketball nut because her father, Dan McCarrell, was a college basketball coach. Former players and assistant coaches are always calling “Mac” on the phone to reminisce about past triumphs—but also to thank him for the springboard into later non-athletic successes.

The trophy case and championship rings are nice, but there are bigger prizes. ✸

  1. Ryan Holiday. The Obstacle Is the Way. New York: Portfolio / Penguin, 2014, p. 87

Eat Move Sleep

I recently contributed a “lunch and learn” to PreferredOne’s annual health fair. We talked about some key topics related to behavioral change, including process thinking, end-gaining, means-whereby and indirect methods. Please see my PowerPoint for more.

The health dimension is a 30-day challenge based on Tom Rath’s Eat Move Sleep (book) and companion website. I encouraged the audience to make some small choices that could lead to big changes in both their quality and quantity of life.

Many thanks to Donna Larson, Shelley Markve, Susan Bernstein and PreferredOne’s Wellbeing Committee for pulling together the event and making the book available to employees. ✸

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Postscript [10/07/2021]. Nell Hurley brought my attention to James Clear’s Atomic Habits (book). Looks like fantastic read that syncs of up with Rath’s work. BTW, Nell was recently featured in a Star Tribune article on the contemporary sober movement.

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Postscript [10/10/2021]. For those intrigued by the Alexander Technique, I suggest booking a few lessons with Brian McCullough or another qualified teacher in your area.