Your excuses will destroy you and take everything that you ever wanted from you if you let them
This is a quote from a former Navy SEAL Jocko Willink. His book Extreme Ownership is one I've been reading for a while, and it is a fantastic read. The reason I picked this book is because of the concept of 'ownership'.
As a father myself, combined with the work I do for young players and their families, I've become increasingly aware of the notion of ownership. We all have some power, but in professional football, it can be easy to believe the clubs are more powerful than ourselves as parents and young players.
This passage from the same podcast jumped out at me because it relates so closely to the work that I do. Willink argues:
Extreme ownership is this went wrong, this failed, I didn't accomplish this, and it's not the fault of my boss. It's not the fault of my girlfriend.
It's not the fault on my parents, It's not the fault of the weather. It's my fault.
And I'm going to take ownership of it, and I'm going to fix it. That's what extreme ownership is. And this is a very difficult thing to do because it hurts.
But here is the difference
One of the hardest parts of ownership is knowing what to take ownership of. But here is the fantastic power hidden within the research I have conducted. It shows you what you need to take ownership of before it happens.
303 players have experienced everything you and your child will experience before you experience it. There are no excuses here, just ownership. No need to listen to the club saying "trust the process" - you've already built your own process. No need to wait and hope, you're already ahead of the curve with career planning.
Is this hard? Yes. But in ownership comes a level of freedom we can't accomplish without some hard work. It translates very well to things like our diet, our sleep pattern, our finances and so on. Things that are hard to do, that require discipline and focus, are usually the things worth doing. Don't let the excuses pile up when you can take ownership of a career in professional football.
