The other night I was having some trouble sleeping because of the amount of things I had running through my mind. These thoughts varied anywhere from work (programming/planning my sports, our football road trip the next day and my interns handling their responsibilities for me when I was gone) to thinking about my little girl and her upcoming soccer game that I was going to miss. It was at this time, about 1:30 a.m., I started to think about perspective and the role it plays in both our personal and professional lives.

The world is filled with a wide variety of very interesting individuals whose outlook on everything is as extreme as their personalities. However, the perspective that people have in their personal and professional lives will help determine how successful they are in both. Too often people allow what is or has happened in one aspect of their lives to affect the other, be it positive or negative. The problem with this is that people allow themselves to go from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other with very little time spent in the middle where they can be the most productive and therefore successful.

When people are dissatisfied with their job they will often do just enough for them to get by and not get fired, if you’ve ever seen Office Space you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. This is true with both athletes and coaches. The problem with this type of attitude is that it has a snowball effect on both their personal and professional lives as they will often get passed over for promotions, raises, other jobs, playing time and other accolades related to your team.

Similar to life, sports are filled with obstacles and the perspective that one has will determine their success more times than talent or athletic ability. If you are a coach, what are you doing to improve? Are you reading something every day that pertains to your work? Are you continuing your education, be it through certification, advanced degree or clinics and seminars? Are you being the best you can for your family, community, co-workers and athletes? As an athlete what are you doing to make your team and coincidently yourself better? Are you doing the small things like watching film, getting treatment, going to class, lifting and whatever your coaches ask of you? Realize that your attitude is contagious but is yours worth catching?