Lifting the Trophy-

A story of soccer and the game of life

This article is about a small booklet from a big heart friend, Danie Nel.

Lifting the trophy is a story about soccer and the game of life. In soccer we play in a team. We have a coach and a captain and we play according to rules and a game plan. We develop our skills to score goals and we play hard until the final whistle blows. In the same way, we have the honour of playing in God’s team. He is our Coach in the game of Life. Jesus is our Captain and our game plan is to honour and glorify Him in all we do right until the final whistle blows. Lifting the trophy is a story that shows you how you are invited to be part of God’s team in the game of life where victory is guaranteed.

Here’s is an extract….

Victory celebrations
I will never forget that feeling. The final whistle blew and the crowds went wild. It had finally happened. All the hard work and training, all the dedication had come together. We were champions! As the trophy was handed over to us we could get lost in the moment of victory. As a team we formed a great unit and as players we were best friends. We could share this moment together as fireworks lit up the night skies in front of thousands of cheering fans in the stands and even more who were sitting in front of their televisions.
Later as we were walking on the field looking up into the empty stands, I thought back to where my love for this game started. My dad introduced me to this beautiful game of soccer. He was not there to share in our glory for he had already passed away but I knew he would have been happy for me. He would have been happy because of our victory but he would have been happier because I finally understood what he meant when he tried to explain to me that: “Life is pretty much like a soccer game”.
My dad and I got along really well and as a kid I used to laugh at him when he made this statement. I can still remember him chasing me and playfully tickling me for daring to laugh at him. Sometimes I miss my dad a lot even though I know he is in a much better place right now than I am. Looking up into the empty stands, I suddenly missed him. “Yes dad – life really is like a soccer game”. Let me try to explain. As a boy, I only understood soccer so the “life” part of his statement was pretty vague to me…

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Discipline: The Path to Potential

By Dr. John C. Maxwell

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He may have been the most naturally gifted baseball player of all time. He was clocked rounding the bases in an incredible 13 seconds. Yet, his speed was nothing compared to the power of his hitting. It’s been said there were home run hitters, and then there was this man – in a league of his own. The Guinness Book of World Records credits him with hitting the longest home run ever measured, at 643 feet.

The player I’m describing is the great Mickey Mantle. By the age of 19 he had been called up to play for the New York Yankees. He won a World Series his rookie year, and his teams would capture seven championships over the course of his career. By the time he retired, Mantle had played more games as a Yankee than any other player, and had been named MVP of the American League three times. He still holds the all-time World Series records for home runs, runs scored, and runs batted in.

Yet, in spite of his impressive accomplishments, experts believe Mickey Mantle never reached his potential. Most blame Mantle’s chronic knee injuries for preventing him from doing more. But injuries weren’t the root of the problem. What most people didn’t know was that Mantle was a raging alcoholic.

At age 62, with his health and family life a mess, Mantle checked into the Betty Ford Clinic and started the long road to sobriety. Looking back from this vantage point, he assessed his career:

I never fulfilled what my dad had wanted [to be the greatest player who ever lived], and I should have. God gave me a great body to play with, and I didn’t take care of it. And I blame a lot of it on alcohol.

Everybody tries to make the excuse that injuries shortened my career. Truth is, after I’d had a knee operation the doctors would give me rehab work to do, but I wouldn’t do it. I’d be out drinking… I hurt my knees through the years, and I just thought they’d naturally come back. Everything has always come natural to me. I didn’t work hard at it.

Despite his great natural talent, Mickey Mantle never disciplined himself off the field. By the time Mantle was ready to change, it was too late. His liver was ruined from a life of alcoholism, and he died at age 64 from inoperable cancer.

Four Truths about Discipline

What were you born to do? What is your dream? To become the person you have the potential to be, you have to cultivate a life of discipline. Consider these truths concerning discipline:

Discipline Comes with a Price Tag

Discipline is costly. It demands a continual investment of time, energy, and commitment at the expense of momentary pleasure and ease. Discipline means paying hours of practice to win the prize of skill. Discipline means giving up short-term benefits for the hope of future gain. Discipline means pressing on to excellence long after everyone else has settled for average.

 Discipline Turns Talent to Greatness

When you read about someone like Mickey Mantle, you realize that too much talent can actually work against someone. Super-talented individuals can coast on sheer ability and neglect building the daily habits of success that will sustain them. Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow shared much insight when he wrote:

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

If you want to reach your potential, attach a strong work ethic to your talent.

 Discipline Focuses on Choices, Not Conditions

In general, people approach daily discipline in one of two ways. They focus on the external or the internal. Those who focus externally allow conditions to dictate whether or not they remain disciplined. Because conditions are transitory, their discipline level changes like the wind.

In contrast, people with internal discipline focus on choices. You cannot control circumstances, nor can you control others. By focusing on your choices, and making the right ones regularly, you stay disciplined.

 Discipline Does Not Bow Down to Feelings

As Arthur Gordon said, “Nothing is easier than saying words. Nothing is harder than living them, day after day. What you promise today must be renewed and redecided tomorrow and each day that stretches out before you.”

If you do what you should only when you really feel like it, then you won’t build disciplined habits. At times, you have to act contrary to emotions. If you refuse to give into your lesser impulses, no matter how great they will make you feel in the moment, then you’ll go far.

Summary

Discipline is a matter of taking total responsibility for your future. Choose not to blame circumstances for the outcome of your life. Choose to go beyond your natural talent. Choose to make wise decisions repeatedly. Choose discipline as the path to your potential.

Leaders vs Managers

 

“Manage things…
lead people.”

– Admiral Grace Hopper

 

Management in our modern day are easy mistaken for leadership. Our managers and leaders are different, let me explain. Leaders are full of passion and emotion, managers are strategic and direct. Leadership is creative, adaptive, and agile, management is about managing the status quo. Management can be taught but Leadership must be learned. Most battling organizations are over-managed and under-led. The world is full of managers and desperately short of leaders – real leaders.

People ask the difference between a leader and a manager. . . .
The leader works in the open, and the manager is covert.
The leader leads, and the manager drives.

                                                             (Theodore Roosevelt)

 

Let’s look at a couple of differences between Leaders and Managers.

Managers are restricting, Leaders are enabling:
True leadership will enable you to become the best you are, without any restrictions to reach your full potential.

Managers are autocratic, Leaders are democratic:

Manager will tell you how, where leaders will show you how.

 

Managers are playing safe, Leaders will take risk:
Leaders want to bring change, they want to explore the unknown. They are prepared to take the risk, for the benefit of the team. They like change. Managers prefer stability.

 

Managers are controlling, Leaders are freeing:
Secure leaders will free others to explore, experiment and lead. Managers is formal authority, where leaders have personal charisma.

 

Managers will be molding, Leaders will be releasing:
Managers will take, leaders will give. Managers will force, where Leaders will enhance.

Managers is rigid, leaders are flexible:
Managers work according to rules and regulations, but leaders will restructure to the needs of the situation.

 

Management– Doing things right
Leadership– Doing right things

 

 

In the end, we need probably need to be good at leading first and managing second, the what and why ….. then……. the how and the when!

 After everything was said, what would you like to be?