The Man Watchinghttp://www.gosportslife.com/the-man-watching/en-US2012-02-12T14:15:52ZSquarespace Site Server v5.11.81 (http://www.squarespace.com/)Hell, Being Extraordinary Is Not Easyhttp://www.gosportslife.com/the-man-watching/hell-being-extraordinary-is-not-easy.htmlAndy Kaasa2007-10-03T00:23:20ZAccountability Excellence Hard Work Inspiration Potential Preparation Standards The Man Watching WinningI know that some people in this room aspire to be the best, aspire to play on the national team. Others are doing this for social reasons. Keep in mind that I've always felt like you guys have the right to make the choice. I am not going to choose whether this is something you're going to take seriously or not. You guys don't have to be great soccer players. You can do what most ordinary people do. Go to the mall. Sit on the couch eating bonbons. Whatever. My respect for you as a human being has nothing to do with your development as a soccer player, so if you want to dork off all spring, you may lose playing time, but you won't lose my respect. I know from my own experience that not all of you will choose to be extraordinary, and something that I've never understood is a coach who gets angry with players who don't choose that path. Hell, being extraordinary is not an easy choice. Not too many people can truly be extraordinary because then it would undermine the definition of what extraordinary is. At North Carolina, excellence is a choice.

Obviously, I would love for all of you guys to select to be absolutely extraordinary at this game, or at least commit yourselves to being as good as you can be. There are enough hours in the rest of the day for you to chase every other dream you have. But to chase this as a dream, to be absolutely the best you can be, is going to take a serious commitment from you. It's not going to be easy. There are going to be days when you don't want to pour anything into this, and as a result on those days, just like with the algebra grade, it can compromise you. It may just be to the tiniest degree, but the margin between the very good and the extraordinary is something incredibly minor like that. SO make sure you understand that whatever you decide to do, that you've chosen it. And make sure you understand that it's not what you do in the week or the month before the season begins, it's what you do now.

]]>How You Choose To Spend Your Time Every Day Shapes Who You Arehttp://www.gosportslife.com/the-man-watching/how-you-choose-to-spend-your-time-every-day-shapes-who-you-a.htmlAndy Kaasa2007-10-03T00:14:05ZAccountability Inspiration The Man WatchingThis is such a simple yet profound lesson that I learned as a teenager from a brilliant algebra teacher that I had in my sophomore year at my boys' boarding school in Switzerland. I didn't realize this at the time, but this math teacher inspired me and has affected the way I've thought for the rest of my life. On the first day of class he said, "I am giving you a homework assignment and I'll give you one day to do it. You will be graded on this assignment and you can select to do it or not. If you select not to do it, don't worry about it. I'm not going to reprimand you. Just make sure that whatever you do in place of the math homework is something you value more than getting an F on the assignment. Please understand that I don't expect you guys to always turn homework in. If you're having a rollicking good time or you think you're doing something that genuinely has greater value to you than a math assignment, please do it. Over the course of the year, you've got a hundred homework assignments, so it's not going to affect your grade that much if you miss one or two."

We thought that teacher was full of shit, and part of the joy of being at boys' boarding school is acting like an absolute jackass, so we decided to test him and not do our homework. He never reprimanded any of us, never treated any of us differently if we didn't turn something n. And then one day it dawned on me what he was really trying to teach us. It's a tremendous lesson. How you choose to spend your time every day is going to shape who you are.

]]>The Man Watchinghttp://www.gosportslife.com/the-man-watching/the-man-watching.htmlAndy Kaasa2007-09-28T17:06:16ZAdversity Excellence Hard Work Inspiration Losing Standards The Man Watching WinningI can tell by the way the trees beat, after

So many dull days, on my worried windowpanes

that a storm is coming,

and I hear the far-off fields say things

I can't bear without a friend,

I can't love without a sister.

The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on

across the woods and across time,

and the wold looks as if it had no age:

the landscape, like a line in the psalm book,

is seriousness and weight and eternity.

What we choose to fight is so tiny!

What fights with us is so great!

If we would only let ourselves be dominated

as things do by some immense storm,

we would become strong too, and not need names.

When we win it's with the small things,

and the triumph itself makes us small.

What is extraordinary and eternal

does not want to be bent by us.

I mean the Angel who appeared

to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:

when the wrestlers' sinews

grew long like metal strings,

he felt them under his fingers

like chords of deep music.

Whoever was beaten by this Angel

(who often simply declined to fight)

went away proud and strengthened

and great from that harsh hand,

that kneaded him as if to change his shape.

Winning does not tempt that man.

This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,

by constantly greater beings.

-The Man Watching by Rainer Maria Rilke

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]]>Our Souls Are Hungry For Meaninghttp://www.gosportslife.com/the-man-watching/our-souls-are-hungry-for-meaning.htmlAndy Kaasa2007-09-28T17:01:45ZInspiration Potential The Man WatchingOur souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for our having passed through it.

-Harold Kushner

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]]>The Only People For Mehttp://www.gosportslife.com/the-man-watching/the-only-people-for-me.htmlAndy Kaasa2007-09-28T16:59:36ZExcellence Inspiration The Man WatchingThe only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.

-On the Road by Jack Kerouac

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]]>Giftshttp://www.gosportslife.com/the-man-watching/gifts.htmlAndy Kaasa2007-09-28T16:51:12ZPsychology The Man WatchingA gift recieved on your birthday carries less power than one that arrives out of the blue.

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]]>Coaching Is Not About Winninghttp://www.gosportslife.com/the-man-watching/coaching-is-not-about-winning.htmlAndy Kaasa2007-09-28T16:45:35ZCoaching The Man Watching WinningCoaching is not about the winning but about the process.

-Dean Smith

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]]>Jobshttp://www.gosportslife.com/the-man-watching/2007/9/28/jobs.htmlAndy Kaasa2007-09-28T16:35:50ZGoal Setting The Man Watching WinningFind a job that you would do for free and figure out how to get paid for it.

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]]>If At First You Don't Succeedhttp://www.gosportslife.com/the-man-watching/if-at-first-you-dont-succeed.htmlAndy Kaasa2007-09-28T16:31:25ZAdversity Coaching The Man WatchingIf at first you don't succeed, you're doing it wrong.

-Bazooka Joe comic

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]]>Was The Year A Success?http://www.gosportslife.com/the-man-watching/2007/9/28/was-the-year-a-success.htmlAndy Kaasa2007-09-28T16:14:02ZCoaching Excellence The Man WatchingThese days, whenever Dorrance is asked at the end of a season if he considers it a success, whether UNC has won a national championship or not, he'll say that it's too soon to know. Borrowing a line from legendary University of Chicago coach Amos Alonzo Stagg, Dorrance says, "I'll let you know in twenty years."

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