Love what you do!

Love him or hate him, you can't argue with the late Steve Jobs' ability to build a business to record-breaking levels, something that, IMHO, has been missing from Apple's makeup since Jobs' passing. It always struck me watching his events/presentations that what we saw was what we got ... there was a truth to his passion and enthusiasm. I've read his biography and fully admit that there's some skeletons in his closet that he tried hard not to reveal, but you simply cannot argue about his acumen in business.

I truly LOVE this quote from him because it is something that has resonated with me for as long as I can remember. I honestly feel I made a brilliant choice so many years ago when I entered the educational system for my career. I thought then, and still wholeheartedly maintain, that I was in it for the long-haul, and I only decided that retirement was the best course when I lost faith in the leadership at the ministry of education. 

As I've said many times previous, "I love teaching but can't stand education."

In case you didn't get the memo, being retired and able to winter in the sunny south is THE BOMB! Not a day goes by that I don't recognize some reason, happenstance, or sign of how blessed I am to have discovered a path for life that came with a gold-plated retirement package! Hey, I didn't choose to become a teacher/coach because of the pension, but it certainly didn't hurt in any way either!

Sure, wintering in southwest Florida brings daily reminders that there are others who've achieved incredible levels of wealth and prosperity, at least by my standards, but despite finding myself a bit envious from time to time, I truly wouldn't change the path I chose for a myriad of reasons. The age old saying, "Figure out what you love to do, then find a way to get paid for it, and you'll never work a day in your life!" rings loud and true for me, just as the iconic Jobs stated. Building on some of my recent posts, I've come to realize that things are just that ... stuff! They don't leave us feeling fulfilled and content. The only path for me to those feelings was to help others find their way by holding the lantern high to light the trail of choices that others may choose for themselves. It's not about a transfer of knowledge ... a SAGE on the STAGE approach ... but a facilitation of necessary skill acquisition for life long learning.

I am profoundly proud of the teacher/coach I became!

It may sound corny, but that moment when a student/athlete finally clears the fog of confusion and the sparkle of understanding bursts forth from their face like a sunburst, thanks in part to my guidance or assistance, is the stuff that charges my batteries for weeks. Every teacher I've spent time with has their own version of that story, and the more regular the occurrence, the more passionate I became, I would imagine not unlike an addiction. Just like the old saying, "People forget what you did, but they always remember how you made them feel!", the resulting relationships that have endured for decades with those in my past classrooms or teams are the stuff that swells my breast with the warmest fuzzy imaginable.

For me, coaching was teaching on steroids! 

When you hitch a group of stallions with independent natures to the same cart and teach them how to work in harmony to achieve a goal that was collectively embraced, the sunburst is like a super nova, the accompanying emotional outpouring of elation washes over you in waves, leaving in it's wake a superlative sense of accomplishment that settles on the internal angst of, "Do they actually pay me to do this?"

Yes, I acknowledge that I was paid to teach! Coaching is teaching, at least in my opinion!

Sometimes I'm asked by those I value why I stopped coaching in my retirement, and the answer occasionally brings some bewildered looks. I have lived my life by the motto we embraced with our Central Rugby program ... Go Hard or Go Home! I developed my coaching style over many, many years, perfecting it for my tastes, values, and morals, so when I finally hung up the whistle for good, I knew that I wouldn't be happy doing a quasi-job of it, fully understanding that my method was intrinsically linked to being in a school with daily access to my athletes off the pitch/court to do the 'little' extras that were required for my method to bring results. 

If I couldn't do it the way I LOVED, I felt I couldn't do it at all. Go Hard or Go Home!

Knowing that, I was more than content to become a FAN, living life on the other side of the whistle, as it were, and I truthfully haven't regretted a single moment. Whether it's cheering or officiating, I'm still in the game at the grassroots level, and that passion to serve still burns white hot.

To quote my cousin Tim Burtch, "Life is Good!"