Life Is About Responsibility

I stumbled upon this article when I was going through my old notes. And it wasn't a mistake for sure to save this one! Author of the following article is former NHL player, Ryan Walter. Ryan's message is a great reminder that no matter what is going on around us, ultimately we are in control.

“No Excuses Culture”

Outcomes are important; we don’t play to lose! Countries do not go to war to tie. Hockey teams do not play to be average. Our Abbotsford Heat team doesn’t work to lose money. Life is about outcomes. You can dream about getting married, but until you muster the courage to ask your partner, promise to be committed to them in front of the world, and then risk a relationship going wrong… you are not married (an outcome).

If there is one thing that I have noticed over my last 50 seasons of participating on teams and identifying why certain players rise to the top, it is that these people know that they must generate positive outcomes, but at the same time understand the importance of pressing beyond the outcome to focus on growing or developing the habits that help to deliver the positive outcomes.

Over my 30+ seasons around professional sport specifically, it has become clear to me that superstars share a number of common qualities. The quality I wish to focus on in this article always differentiates the best in any field from those who are never quite the players that people had hoped they would become. This single quality is the key to not only being a better player, but also to having a better life. What I am talking about is Not Making Excuses.

"What I am talking about is Not Making Excuses."

The very best in any field refuse to make excuses. As a matter of fact, they don’t even use this word. The best-of-the-best choose to take responsibility for their actions, their attitudes, and their mistakes, and never offer an excuse for not accomplishing their goal or being their very best. They just find a way to do it.

"The best-of-the-best choose to take responsibility for their actions, their attitudes, and their mistakes."

The greatest gift we could ever give ourselves and each other is to help our team continually apply both sides of the success coin:

Never offer an excuse for our attitude and actions.
Always take responsibility for our attitude and actions.

Hockey players frequently use the excuse that the refereeing wasn’t very good. I have conservatively calculated that over my 15 NHL seasons as a player I took around 12,000 face-offs (including playoffs). In my day, players were allowed more leeway in cheating their positioning, and the linesman dropping the puck had a lot of influence on which center won the face-off. Early in my NHL career I focused on the linesmen and complained that they were negatively affecting my faceoff percentage.

My trade to the Montreal Canadiens, with its culture of intense media scrutiny combined with a high expectation of winning, changed all of that. I decided to adopt the principle of No more excuses. Instead of blaming the linesman or becoming upset with my opponent’s cheating, I focused on adjusting my approach to win the face-off. As a matter of fact, during NHL home games when I had the advantage of placing my stick in the face off dot last, I found that I was moving too quickly and sometimes got kicked out of the faceoff circle. So, I adjusted. I placed my stick on the ice first (giving up my so-called advantage) and forced my opponent to move into the face off dot last, where he often got kicked out of the circle instead of me. No excuses… just find ways to adjust and accomplish the task.

"No excuses… just find ways to adjust and accomplish the task."

John McEnroe was the world champion of tennis for 4 consecutive years, but McEnroe has acknowledged that he didn’t maximize his potential. He has admitted that he could have performed better for longer. In her book, Mindset, Carol Dweck itemizes the various excuses McEnroe gave to account for his failures over the course of his career:

Once he lost because he had a fever
Once he had a backache
Once he fell victim to expectations and another time, the tabloids
Once he lost to a friend because the friend was in love and he wasn’t
Once he ate too close to his match
Once he was too chunky, another time too thin
Once it was too hot, another time too cold
Once he was under trained and another time, over trained”

Can you feel where this is going? When we do not take responsibility for our actions, attitudes and mistakes, the typical first resort is to find someone or something to blame for our underachievement.

John McEnroe suffered his most agonizing defeat at the 1984 French Open, losing to Ivan Lendl, two sets to none. According to McEnroe it wasn’t his fault because an NBC cameraman had taken off his headset, resulting in a noise originating from that side of the court. Since it wasn’t his fault, McEnroe didn’t train to improve his ability to concentrate or his emotional control.

When we dole out blame, we refuse to see the need for our improvement or our growth. In a world where our opponents are constantly improving, if we hold on to our excuses, we will fail!

The legendary basketball coach, John Wooden, said, “You aren’t a failure until you start to blame.”

“You aren’t a failure until you start to blame.” - John Wooden

The No-Excuses and No-Blaming attitude changes everything. We can choose to change the way we do things (focus on improvement) or choose to actively focus on the alleged reasons why we were prevented from doing what we were supposed to do. The philosopher Aristotle said; "We are what we repeatedly do." Blaming others has an outcome. Developing a No Excuses attitude also has an outcome.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” - Whoever said this

According to Wooden we remain in the process of learning from our mistakes until we deny them. I have observed that the best in the world make slight adjustments to their vocabulary to help them sustain the proper focus. They talk a lot about what they want to accomplish, how they are going to accomplish it, and how their teammates are amazing people.

The best in the world also omit some things entirely from their vocabulary: things like complaining about negative circumstances, blaming others and, making excuses.

Have a great week unless you choose otherwise.

Cheers