It is always fascinating to me how two, or even three or four people can view the same thing or the same situation and see completely different things.
The NCAA men’s basketball championship was played recently. North Carolina was the winner of the game but this is about the loser, Gonzaga University.
Now, if you’re not a basketball fan, please don’t check out of this blog. Gonzaga basketball is merely a tool to share my point today!
This year the Gonzaga Bulldogs made it to their first ever NCAA Final Four. The journey was a long and very interesting one.
From 1985-1997 Dan Fitzgerald was the head coach of the Bulldogs. Over the course of those years he crafted a very respectable 252 wins and 171 losses record. Not bad.
At the end of each season coach Fitzgerald would take his assistant coaches out for dinner to thank them for their efforts.
Those assistants included Dan Monson, who was Fitzgerald’s immediate replacement for two years, and Mark Few, who took over when Monson left. Few has been the head coach for the last 18 years.
At some point during the dinner coach Fitzgerald would tell his assistants why the Bulldogs would never be a great team. You can read the full article here.
“Every school has better weather. Every school besides Saint Mary’s has better facilities. Every school has better players in their area to recruit,” Monson remembers the late Fitzgerald saying. “And it was hard to argue with any of those reasons.”
Coach Fitzgerald wore a set of glasses that only allowed him to see what wasn’t possible. He settled for a vision that led him to mediocrity. Okay. Acceptable. Good enough.
When Fitzgerald retired as head coach Dan Monson took over, but only for two years.
Even though he was only there for two years, 1997-1999, he was given much of the credit for getting the Zags to their first final four eighteen years later.
Apparently, Dan Monson had a different optometrist than Dan Fitzgerald. His vision was not limited by what wasn’t possible and what Gonzaga didn’t have. He saw more than what the previous coach was able to see.
Mike Roth was the athletic director when Monson was the head coach of the Bulldogs.
Here’s what Roth had to say about what Monson did in his two short years as the head coach, “He changed the thinking,” Roth said. “We made a conscious decision to be different, to be something more than what we’d always been.”
Monson didn’t settle. He wasn’t okay with being okay. He wanted more than acceptable and good enough.
The words that really strike me from Roth’s statement are these, “We made a conscious decision to be different, to be something more than what we’d always been.”
Those are powerful words that are very convicting for me.
Often I find myself wearing a pair of glasses that really limit my vision. I find myself settling for okay, acceptable, and good enough.
It takes courage to begin to see differently, to make a conscious decision to be something more than what we’ve always been.
I know there are many in this world who are fine with okay, acceptable, and good enough. I don’t have a problem with that if that is what you want.
I also know there are many people who are settling, me included, who do want more but need a new prescription for their glasses.
Are you fine with settling for okay, acceptable, and good enough?
Do you have the courage to make a conscious decision to take off your old glasses and put on some new ones to see what the possibilities might be?
Do you have the courage to stop settling and become more than what you’ve always been?
You’re off to great places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So, get on your way! Dr. Suess
Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS day!
