You’ve Got To Have Heart
“You’ve Got To Have Heart” picks up where we left off with last week’s “This Year Will Be Different” blog, which is where I shared strategies for goal attainment. Before we dive into this week’s blog, let me ask you a question. Once you’ve identified a goal that you want to accomplish, is “I’m surely going to fail!” the first thought that comes to mind? For those of us who are married, as you were exchanging your vows, did you think “This is going to last forever” or did you think, “Well, if it doesn’t work out, we’ll just get a divorce!” I am really hoping your thoughts align to the former rather than the latter. 😊 The point to be made here is that no one starts out on a journey thinking they’re going to fail. We all start out with intentions of succeeding; excited because we can’t wait to see the fruits of our labor. We start out full of vitality and energy, steadfast in our resolve. And then…time passes. Doubt creeps in and you start to question yourself asking, “Why did I decide to take this on?” It’s been a week and I haven’t lost the twenty pounds I set out to lose. Or I haven’t made the $1000 I expected to make. And this is where the problem starts.
Have you seen the movie The Replacements starring Keanu Reeves as Shane Falco and Gene Hackman as Jimmy McGinty? The movie is loosely based on the 1987 NFL strike and the series of events that transpire as a team of replacement players finish out the rest of the season for The Washington Sentinels (fictional team). There’s a scene in the movie where the Sentinels are trailing Dallas at halftime 17-0. The following dialogue occurs between a woman reporter and McGinty on the way back to the locker room.
“Reporter: Coach, what will Washington need to get back into this game?
Jimmy McGinty: You’ve got to have heart.
Reporter: Can you elaborate?
Jimmy McGinty: (striking his chest with his roll of papers) Miles and Miles of heart.
Reporter: So, with a word, Coach McGinty says Washington will need to have heart to get back into this ball game.”
The heart that Jimmy is referring to is Shane Falco. Even though Shane has stepped in as the replacement quarterback to help the Sentinels finish out the season, he’s not on the field for the final game because the regular quarterback, Eddie Martell, crossed the picket line. Jimmy relays the news to Falco and tells him that he will not be playing the last game. But before they part, Jimmy tells Falco that he has something that Martell does not have. He tells Falco he has heart. For those of you who are wondering what this means and what does this have to do with attaining your goals…hold one for a few more minutes. As a professional football player, Martell has lost his love for the game. He is in it for the money and has forgotten what he loves about playing ball. In comparison, there’s Shane. Despite Shane’s disastrous failure as a pro-quarterback at the Sugar Bowl of 1996, he still loves the game. And it is this love that serves as the driving force behind how he plays. It is what distinguishes him from Eddie.
If you are serious about the goals you want to achieve, set yourself up to succeed (as I outlined in “This Year Will Be Different”) and make sure you know the reason(s) why you are pursuing this goal. What is the source that drives you? For Shane, it was the love of the game. He loved it so much that he did not let what people were saying about him when he first walked onto the field as a replacement player deter or discourage him from playing his best. His conviction was so tangible that his teammates even felt it. So much so that they started to believe in their own abilities and in the possibility of finishing out the season as winners!
Having heart requires that after you’ve set realistic goals, you do the work to attain those goals. It requires that you hold yourself accountable for the actions you take along the journey and realize that while you cannot control everything that happens to you along your journey, you can control how you will react, i.e., what you do in response to something that you hadn’t expected. Think of how Shane reacted in response to what people were saying about him. While he couldn’t do anything about what they were saying, he could control how he responded. Having heart requires you to have grace. Understand that to change years of a certain behavior or to lose the twenty pounds that you put on over the course of ten years, takes time and consistency and is not something that occurs overnight or even over a few weeks. To change something that is deep-rooted is not an instant thing. As such, you’ll most likely encounter setbacks. It’s at that moment that you need to show yourself grace. Don’t be discouraged that you fell back into old routines or ate more than you should have eaten. Rather acknowledge what you did and start again. Believe in yourself and your ability to accomplish what you put your mind to!
“Grit determines that life challenges will neither defeat nor define us.
Grace gives kindness to ourselves and others even when it’s hard.”
