Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #30: Gill1918 presents Lewis Edmonson "What is Your Purpose, What is Your Pride?"

Transcript

#30: Gill1918 presents Lewis Edmonson "What is Your Purpose, What is Your Pride?" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  coaches, for coaches, powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. We're bringing the once a year
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  track clinic straight to your ears daily.
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  Interested in creating your own episode?
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  Everyone's welcome to participate.
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  Check out the show notes below For more information.
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  Now let's get into today's topic.
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  Good evening. I am Louis Edmondson of Hern
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  Eagle Track and Field and today I will be talking about what is
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  your purpose and what is your passion.
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  So the first thing that I want to do is get a little based on
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  what is what is purpose. So we go through and we look at
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  purpose and we say purpose is the reason for which something
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  is done or created or why something exists.
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  So when you go through and you have to talk about purpose, you
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  have to look at things that put you in a standpoint of just
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  exactly why you doing these things.
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  So my purpose came from a particular situation that I was
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  in going through college, a little bit through high school.
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  I had some family members that were very successful in track
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  and it just, you know, little, little fire, but it extremely
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  put a hard damper on me. When I got to college and had a
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  situation that went down, I had I was in a particular wreck that
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  went, you know, that I was in and I had a lot of success
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  before that race. So I had a lot of success that
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  came before that particular situation.
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  So there was a wreck that I was in and the wreck pretty much
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  determined at one point in time if I was ever going to be able
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  to participate in the field of the sport of track and field
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  again. And that was something that I
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  just was not good with. I was mentally destroyed behind
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  it. It brought on some physical
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  situations that destroyed me behind it, that my body just
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  wasn't willing to accept that. My mind was not willing to
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  accept that. But as you know, due to a high
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  power, we don't control those things.
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  You know, we have to give that to God and that that's, you
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  know, that's the path that I decided to take.
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  So with that being said, without getting too far into that,
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  everything worked out like it was supposed to.
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  I was driven to become pretty good, pretty good hurdler,
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  pretty good track and field event guy.
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  And from that day on it, it just, it built a lot of purpose
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  in me. My purpose was to show other
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  people that no matter what goes on through hard work and
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  determination, you can pretty much be anything that you want
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  to be OK. So the, the purpose has to be
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  there for you to be successful in, in anything that you do, not
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  just track and field. That's just what we're talking
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  about, track and field. So the purpose that I give the
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  kids is seeing that through things that I've done,
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  experiences that I've been through and success and, and
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  some other situations where you just, you know, you don't get to
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  success. But that doesn't mean that you
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  you don't get to continue to work hard.
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  You don't get to, you know, take the back seat to and settle to
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  the results. I think I spoke on Twitter last
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  week that, you know, for a lot of the kids that did not make it
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  to the state championship, that does not mean that you know, you
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  are less than. You know, you're still a
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  competitive athlete. You're still one of the best in
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  the state of Texas. You know, it just we didn't
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  reach that brink of success during that year.
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  So the, the purpose for stating that was just to put everything
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  into a spectrum of understanding that a hard working competitive
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  athlete will get the results. But if the results don't turn
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  out like you would like them to have turned out, that doesn't
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  mean that you're any less than. And I think that's a big part of
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  purpose. And we as coaches have to make
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  our kids understand that the, the general purpose for the
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  mission at the at the beginning of the year is OK.
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  So when we say purpose, we set long term goals, short term
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  goals to achieve those, you know, and we put those into, you
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  know, and we, we line them up, you know, and we make sure that
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  everything that we do at the end of the day has a purpose to it.
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  Why are we doing these things? Did we reach our goals?
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  Did we not reach our goals? Did we did we why did we fall
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  short? Why did we overcome, you know,
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  and reach our goal? Like I say, that's just a lot of
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  things that, you know, we, we work on as coaches a lot of the
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  time with when, you know, when we're teaching about the, the,
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  the, the purpose, we have to, we have to put value on things too.
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  And we can't take things for granted.
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  I think that's a big thing that I look at as a, as a coach
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  that's been through a lot of things that I don't take
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  anything for granted because I've had it taken away from me.
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  I've watched it be put on pause and, and I have to understand
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  some things that, you know, life will always life and we will
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  have to deal with it when it comes.
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  So work hard when you have the chance to do those things
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  because I tell my kids all the time, I said there is a, there's
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  a individual right now that will trade places with you with every
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  single problem that you have right now, right now going on.
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  They will trade places with you problems and problems and all
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  right now. So value the things that you are
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  able to do. Value the things that you're
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  able to to to to momentarily do, you know, be successful in the
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  things you do. Push forth effort every single
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  chance that you have the opportunity to do those things
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  because nothing is, you know, nothing is promised for
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  tomorrow. And that's just the world that
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  we live in now. We've seen so many things that
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  that state that and, and hold that to be true.
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  So the, the other thing about purpose is the team purpose that
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  I, I look at when we come together as coaches, when we set
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  forth at the beginning of the year, when you have those
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  meetings, when we go over all the data, when we look at
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  placing the kids in the events, when we have to, you know, come
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  together to get a point total or, you know, you know, we have
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  to put purpose on those things too.
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  You know, we are, we purposely putting our kids in a winning
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  situation or a competitive situation, more or less to say.
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  So we get the best out of the out of the team as well as the
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  coaches. So that's a, that's a lot of
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  things that I think about when I, when I say purpose, you, you
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  look at, you know, you have to look at the dedication of
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  purpose too. Am I dedicated to the things
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  that am I doing or am I just, you know, speaking it or am I
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  just writing these things down and I'm not dedicated to the
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  things that I, I do. The the the purpose will all
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  seem also bring balance to you as a coach and and you know,
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  even as an athlete to men. You know, I have to put myself
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  and balance out. You know, if I'm a student
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  athlete, I got to balance out my education.
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  I have to balance out my athletic, you know, endeavors
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  that I set out for the year. So those things, they go
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  together and with that, because, you know, you become satisfied
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  with the things that go on. You never get complacent, but
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  you become satisfied. When I say satisfied, I mean
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  that I accept the results that came.
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  Yes. Well, I want to oversee the
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  things that I do. Yes, I would love, I'd love to
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  be, you know, a state champion, but I was a regional champion.
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  I may have gotten fit at the state championship, but I gave
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  it my best effort. So I was satisfied and I think I
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  conquered my purpose. When you win a district
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  championship, did we put those people in the right place to be
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  successful? Did we Did we succeed in our
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  goal? You know, when we put those
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  things together and you know, at the beginning of the day, the
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  purpose was set out and the plan was foolproof.
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  And yes, we are. We're satisfied with those
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  results. So the, the next thing that I'll
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  touch on is passion. And this is this is a big part
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  of me. Also, passion is strong and
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  barely controllable emotions. That's that's, that's, that's a
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  strong definition, man. When I when I think about track
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  and field, there's nothing about track and field that doesn't
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  excite me. From every aspect of track and
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  field, I'm very excited about things that go on because you
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  get to see people put forth their best effort in a team
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  effort, but also in an individual action.
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  I have to do my part no matter what it comes to.
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  You know, I lay it all on the line.
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  I'm in my lane, you're in your lane, and we're fighting to the
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  finish. We're running to the finish,
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  we're jumping the fathers, we're jumping the highest, we're
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  throwing the farthest, you know it.
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  And all those things have so much passion, you know, and not
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  to take away from any other sport, but I just feel like, you
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  know, when you look at track and field, you get to see that, that
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  that individual in that moment give you everything he or she
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  has and the results will, you know, they sometimes they, you
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  know, they, we don't get what we want, but at the giving our best
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  is what we ultimately want our kids to do.
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  My, my passion, when I coach, my kids can see it.
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  My family still sees it. It's a, it's a burning desire
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  that that always, you know, will show up.
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  You know, my mind is always on track.
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  You know, when we're in the season, it's, it's constantly
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  thinking. It's constantly my, my coaches
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  call it the little people running in my head, but they
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  know that I'm always trying to put our our kids in a winning
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  situation or like I say, a highly competitive situation.
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  When you have passion, you do the little things that sometimes
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  the coaches don't see. You know, like I tell people all
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  the time we have a heel here in Hearne, TX that that heel never
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  moves. You can run that heel whenever
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  you would like to get better, to get some strength, to get some
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  power, to get some conditioning. Those are the little things that
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  you have to do and that that pushes pride out.
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  That pushes your your passion out.
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  When you see the passion, it means that I'm totally dedicated
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  to the things that I want to do to be successful.
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  A few things that I look at when I, when I look at my passion, it
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  motivates the purpose. You know, the passion is the
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  driven force between our actions, giving us the energy
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  and enthusiasm to persuade our goals.
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  So now I'm pushing forth, you know, now I'm driven, I'm
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  dedicated. I'm, there's nothing that's
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  going to stop me from getting to my goals.
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  You know that those are things that, like I said, when when
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  you're passionate about things that that you're more likely to
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  stay motivated versus people pushing you or coaches pushing
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  you. I tell kids all the time, you
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  know, track is really not a sport that I'm going to beg you
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  to do. You kind of want to have to be
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  out there to get what we get in track and field.
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  Another thing that passion does, it enhances productivity and
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  your success. Passion often leads to increase
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  productivity and success. When we are passionate about our
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  work, we're more likely to be engaged and enjoy what we do.
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  And that's a big part about track and field.
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  You cannot convince a kid to come out there to just run.
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  When you think about football and basketball, a lot of the
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  times when they're running in basketball and football in
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  practice is probably a punishment when this is what we
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  do when we come to practice. So now you're, you know, you're,
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  you're gaining success and you want to come.
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  Now you have some passionate about what you do in workouts,
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  what you do in the track means I tell my guys all the time, we
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  have to win the track meet, the track practice.
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  We have to win the track practice.
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  We can't win, you know, in the, in the track meet if we haven't
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  practiced those things in, in practice to be successful about
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  those things. So we have to do that during
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  practice. Being passionate about things
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  that you do will also get you through, you know, it'll get you
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  through challenges and setbacks, man.
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  It'll give you that non quit factor in you like no matter
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  what goes on, you're still going to be able to fight through it.
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  You're going to be able to get through it.
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  There's going to be, you know, light at the end of the tunnel.
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  You have to stay focused on those things when you're, when
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  you're competing in track and field.
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  You know, with that being said, you know, that's pretty much the
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  conclusion of my of this presentation.
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  It's just to understand that we all go through these, you know,
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  these processes. We all have purpose and we all
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  have passion. And I tell people all the time,
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  your passion and purpose may never match mine or may never be
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  the same, but that doesn't mean it fits.
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  It doesn't fit your kids and what you're going through at
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  your school. And that will change from school
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  to school. And we have to understand that
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  as well. You know, I've been in Rockdale
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  and my passion and purpose was different when I got to Hearn
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  because those are totally different set of kids that go
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  through different things inside and outside of school that we
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  have to push a different aspect on kids.
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  So we have to understand that as well.
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  But with that being said, man, I thank y'all for sitting and
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  listening to this, the spiel on passion.
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  And it's just, you know, it's just something that that sits
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  dearly near and dear to my heart.
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  So purpose and passion will definitely catapult your career.
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  So tap into it if you haven't tapped into it, which I'm sure
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  all you have. I wish you the best, most
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  success to all of y'all. Thank y'all all for listening.
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  I want to give a big shout out to Mike Cunningham for pushing
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  me through this process because it took a lot but it's something
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  that I thoroughly enjoy. You can find the Hearn Track and
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  field program on X at HT Eagle Track and my personal X or
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  Twitter, whatever they want to call it these days is at Coach
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  under score. Edmondson EDMONSON Thank you all
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  and y'all have a blessed day. Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here.
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  Hey, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Guild 1918
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  Project series. It's really my mission, my
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  passion to bring you massive amounts of value and I hope this
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  one hit the mark. The Gill 1918 Project is really
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  dependent on you if for you to build your own episode, to hear
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  your voice, to have your voice heard you have something to say
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  and teach other coaches out there.
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  So please get a hold of me, e-mail, text message, Twitter,
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  Hope you enjoy today and we'll see you tomorrow.