You can't coach determination

It is the most wonderful time of the year right now - some seem to think that the most wonderful time of the year is at the end of December when people celebrate (or don't depending on their beliefs) fat red men breaking into their houses and Coca-Cola ads. However, as is often the case, the people are wrong. The most wonderful time of the year is the end of February and March. It is the time of some of the best salt water fishing in New Zealand, the snow is slowly starting to melt up in those states that are close to Canada, pollen is about to destroy my sinuses and Super Rugby is back on ESPN3 (just wish the 6 Nations was easier to watch).

Some of you may be wondering what rugby has got to do with anything I write about - in which case welcome to your first Poets Day blog :)

A few months ago All Black Ardie Savea was fortunate enough to have his photo taken with the kids and I when we were in Chicago to watch the All Blacks play, it was probably the highlight of the year for him. Last weekend I watched him tackle and run and tackle and run and tackle and run (you get the idea) in a game where the Hurricane rugby team was putting a complete asswhupping onto the Sunwolves from Japan. One of the commentators also noticed he amount of running and tackling and running and tackling and running (ok, enough of that) that the aforementioned Ardie Savea was doing on the paddock and made the comment "You can't coach determination", and boy/girl/unsure that is true.

In sport, as in life, it is not difficult to learn the fundamental skills to do your job, whether it be the ability to pass a rugby ball, calculate gross margin or use Command + C to copy something and paste it to a blog - I can do 2 of the preceding things by the way. But just having all the skills required to do the job does not mean you can do the job well.  You might be performing the function adequately and if that is all you want to be then fine, but then you are most likely not Ardie Savea - Ardie doesn't do anything adequately, he does everything (well not everything as we are not that close) with speed, force and determination. You can train to be strong, you can work on your speed but the determination, that comes from another muscle. It is a bit like a great mudder, they might not run pretty in the dry but when it gets wet on track the mudder shows things that the trainer can't train and the jockey can't jock?, they show their determination.

Don't confuse determination with bone-headed stubbornness either - there is a difference, bone-headed stubbornness is something you most definitely can learn and seems to be getting coached all over the book of faces on a daily basis, no matter whether you look left or right. I like to think there is  a decent amount of determination in my blood pump, sometimes not as much as I would like, but it was most definitely a learned and inherited trait, it was never coached in. Coaches can yell at you as much as they want about not quitting,  to try to drive you to do things you probably couldn't achieve without their cajoling, however if you don't have that determination in you you will ring the bell and get off the beach.

You can't coach determination but can assist it grow in someone. We are probably born with a certain amount of determination (I have no idea, not a Doctor, just played one on stage) but as we know internal and external factors can change peoples behaviors, and a persons determination to succeed, win, complete, run and tackle, tackle and run can be nurtured at any time. Sometimes someones ability to express how determined they are can be hampered by environmental circumstances but at some point the blood pump will drive them to be/do more than just average. Just because you cannot coach determination does not mean you cannot foster it, you should look for it in employees, team members, friends and family. A person with determination is often the better person for a position than the person with skill but no determination. When the going gets tough you want those people with determined blood pumps on your team, not someone who will bail.

Just to clarify a couple of this in this weeks post. The only professional psychiatric training I have received is by not watching Dr Phil or Jerry Springer. The use of a rugby players name in this weeks blog is no reflection on what an incredibly talented player he is, and no, I am not sure how he runs in the wet. I am not sure what Command + C does on a PC as I am writing this on a Mac and I do not have time to research the answer on AltaVista (search engine to the stars) as I need to go cheer on Turtle as she performs a Spanish dance at school this afternoon. And no, March is not a great month because of the bouncy ball March Madness - it is a great month because of rugby.

Work hard, play hard and earn your inspiration

Happy Poets Day