"You Can't Coach Desire"

Rainy Days
I don't know about you guys but I love rainy days. They are some of the times when I do my best thinking, planning, and writing. I suppose it's because the rain calms me, and it keeps you inside generally, which helps for productivity and what not. Oddly enough, today I learned that running in the rain is amazing too. I started my morning with pancakes and eggs and sat down to eat and what Prefontaine. If you don't know what this movie is, or have never seen it, I strongly recommend that you check it out. It's the story of Oregon great Steve Prefontaine and his journey running the 5K and attempting to win the gold medal. After sitting through this movie I had the strong desire to go for a run, and when I stepped outside I noticed it was going to rain but that didn't deter me. It was a great 20min run...

What a nice way to start my day. As for yesterday, all I did was play the Chin card and sit around in the basement watching football all day...which is actually great. Even though some of the more exciting games weren't on, there's just something about watching football that is nice.

So after my run I took a shower while listening to music and danced around a little bit. Yes I was home alone and ended up dancing, it's what I like to do, very liberating, you should try it. Afterwards I gave the Loch Raven High School (my old school) Basketball coach a call and we talked for awhile. He talked about wanting to turn the entire program around (which isn't too hard because it's been a very bad program for awhile) and he also talked about starting a study table for the kids. He spoke about wanting to teach disciple and order to the kids and how that would then allow them to grow as young men and as basketball players. All of these things I agree with so I was pretty excited. For once it seems like there's a guy who isn't just coaching for the moderate pay check, but he also wants to make a difference in the lives of the athletes and the school in general. He offered me both the assistant coach position as well as the study table mediator, both of which I am now very interested in. He ended our conversation by inviting me out to breakfast tomorrow, which I am looking forward to.

So the title quote, "you can't coach desire" was said by the Oregon head track coach in the Pre movie but also in his book "jogging." And this quote stuck with me and got me to thinking about myself, as a person and as an athlete. I loved running track, still do, always will, but my desire during those years wasn't the desire to win or be the best. It was just the desire to show up, work hard, and escape from the stresses of daily life. Its this lack of wanting to win that probably kept me off the podium but I didn't mind, in fact I loved every second of my track career and would do it all the same over again. But my life desire, this is a big question. Coming home I knew I needed to find a job. I know I wanted to help people and I had a couple of places in mind and interviews lined up. After looking more into these places they all seemed like they would be great resume builders, but I didn't know if they would give me the satisfaction, the feeling of creating real change and impact that I desire. As a kid and now all I ever want to do is positively impact the people I meet, and oddly enough this coaching gig seems like a good way to do it. So yes I still plan on continuing my education in psychology and eventually a career, but who says I can't change a couple of lives in the process.

Its more what we do that defines us, not how we do it. So while I didn't initially plan on taking this path, I believe that there is a reason it's all come together so smoothly and at this particular time in my life, so like my good friend opportunity said when he comes you should answer, and that is precisely what I intend to do.