We lost the first game to them by 25 points.

I volunteered to coach my youngest son’s 4th Grade Recreational basketball team in October.

I never coached any of my oldest’s teams and figured I should do so with my youngest since I won’t have another chance, and basketball made the most sense for me to head coach.

𝗔𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲, 𝟴 𝘁𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗸𝗶𝗱𝘀; 𝟯 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲.

I thought, this was going to be more challenging than I realized.

1, one hour practice per week. We ended up practicing 16x in total.

We played 11 regular season games and went 3-8.

We weren’t the worst team, but we were also not one of the better ones.

Finding the right lineup combinations was a struggle because I had to spread the playing time evenly throughout the game.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝘄𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝘂𝘀 𝟯𝟲-𝟭𝟭 𝗶𝗻 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝟱.

It was non-competitive, and I’m not sure the final score indicated how one-sided the game was.

For Saturday’s game, we switched things up and trapped the ball all over the court the entire game.

We started the game up 9-0.

They eventually came back, and the game went back and forth throughout.

My son got a technical for slamming the ball down, and I got a technical for defending him. That was mid-way through the 2nd Q, and because technical fouls count as personal fouls, my son now had 4 fouls.

Somehow, he didn’t foul out, and we were down 3 late in the game.

We then cut to 1 with under a minute to play.

After getting a stop, a kid on our team who didn’t score much took a 16-foot jump shot from the top of the key. It hit the rim three times before going in to put us up 1.

On the next possession, we forced a steal, and one of our players made a layup to go up 3 with 14 seconds left.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗼𝘂𝘁.

The kids come running over to the bench celebrating! I was like, we haven’t won yet. There’s still time left. Focus!!

After they inbounded the ball, they got two looks at a game-tying 3 and missed both!

➡ We had pulled off the upset!

Eight 10-year-old faces filled with joy! I’m sad I must block out their faces in the picture because those are happy kids!

📌 It would have been easy to mail it in and not try our best because we’d lost to them before by so many points.

• But games aren’t played on paper. • You never know what can happen. • With the right game plan and maximum effort, we did what most people didn’t think we could do.

What if you applied this to your life and/or business?
Are you making the proper effort?
Are you tweaking your approach?
Have you given up?
Are you frustrated by your results but keep doing the same things?

𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲.

🔺 Change your Approach. 🔺 Change your Outcome.

This was never truer than on Saturday morning.

𝗣.𝗦. I post at 8:30 a.m. EST, M-F.