Vision.

About ten years ago I was given this advice: The number one soccer skill I need moving forward is a clear, tangible vision backed up with methodology.

For a vision to be tangible means that I have to know how I will act on it. For example, I have to know that if a player shows up late, this is the response or it means when the referee makes a call, I will handle myself in this way.

In my current setting, I observe coaches every day and see many inconsistencies between what they claim their vision to be and how they handle themselves and respond to others. When I am asked what coach should do about player behavioral issues or with what food to buy the players for away games (the cheaper, less nutritious option or the slightly more expensive, healthier option), I always find myself coming back to ask them what their vision is. Everything, and I mean everything, we do as a coach comes back to this.

This week I have finally begun drafting my vision. The process that I am starting is simply writing down what I want for players, what I will do, and what I will not do. I will expand from here, but for me, this is my first step. I want to point out here that a vision is not a book or even an essay. It is one sentence that explains everything that I have mentioned up until now. My aim in writing my vision out in this way is to look at all that I wrote and then begin to see what is most important to me. Afterwards, in writing what I want to happen and what I don't want to happen, I can then begin thinking about the environment I create for my players. I see a lot of things that I don't want to ever see or hear again, and so it is my responsibility as a coach and leader to create an environment that is as positive as it can be.

I'll never forget a podcast I listened to a while back where Jason Fried is a guest on the Tim Ferriss show. He talked about several different topics that are worth listening to, but the most notable to me was on prairie restoration. The point around this is that you can create conditions for certain things to thrive and also not create conditions for certain things to thrive.

The two questions I ask my readers today are: What is your vision? What are the conditions you are creating in your own environment?