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~ Convergence of reflections, contemplations, and other musings

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Tag Archives: Sports

Bringing Your Best – Thoughts To My Sons

27 Monday Jan 2020

Posted by jdicochea in Baseball Equals Life, Finding Happiness, Hope, Looking forward, Reflection, Sports Equals Life

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Accountability, Future, Guidance, Inspiration, Life, Motivation, Peace, Self-Help, Sharing, Sports, The Journey

I truly love this quote and it’s relevance can’t be underestimated or undervalued.  I’ve never been a big fan of the saying (often as some sort of comfort to soothe failed engagements):  “at least you tried your best.”  I think the matter of “trying” is too often confused with the level of “activity”, not the integrity behind the efforts employed.  I mean we confuse victory as the precise assessment of what we put forth when we know in certain instances, being victorious may not call upon our best depending on the quality of our competitors.

So how do we know if we “brought our best” to a challenge.  Again, sometimes it’s more difficult to ascertain when the result is triumph but at least we know that our “best” was superlatively better than whoever we faced and our sense of satisfaction, or lack thereof, will  rest on our view of what we did to prove it.

But the true measure of what we brought to the game is revealed through our losses (and they should be few) by the appearance of both combatants and utter confusion by the casual observers about who got the worst in their warfare.  By that evaluation, we can be assured that our “best” may have fallen short, at least this time, but it was good enough to let our challenger know he was one punch away from being on the receiving end of defeat and wondering if it’s worth another engagement in a rematch.

So “trying your best” is certainly a good starting point but it’s an empty effort if you leave behind the characteristics and quality of the best within you, both intrinsically and what has been exquisitely developed through your work over time, that must be brought when the moment calls for its superb application.  Simply put, you’ll know if you’ve “brought your best” when afterwords there’s not one element of your mental, emotional, and physically being untapped leaving you silently applauding yourself, not only for the result achieved but also by how little you saved of yourself to capture it so you’re at the point of being almost incapable of standing upright to enjoy it!

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Getting To Your Dreams – Thoughts To My Sons

17 Monday Jun 2019

Posted by jdicochea in Baseball Equals Life, Finding Happiness, Hope, Looking forward, Reflection, Uncategorized

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Accountability, Faith, Family, Future, Guidance, Happiness, Inspiration, Joy, Life, Motivation, Self-Help, Sharing, Sports, The Journey

What’s so hard about making your dreams come true if you consider the recipe and mechanisms to reach them?  First, it starts with imagining them for yourselves in a way that they seem real and thus within your reach. Next, you believe and have faith that you, and only you, have the capacity and capability to accomplish them no matter the obstacles.  And finally and most importantly, you have to be absolutely 150% committed to putting in a determined effort to reach your destination without accepting that alternatives or options exist short of your dreams.

I’ve found that the only times I’ve ever abandoned any lofty goals are when I’ve surrendered that commitment in exchange for convenience and practicality, using paltry excuses, flawed justifications, and misdirected blame to comfort the loss of something I really wanted and could have had.  You guys are at a stage where your dreams are closer than you realize and if you stay committed to and focused on your quests, what you dream about will turn out to being another among your growing prized possessions.  I’ll provide the hope, support, and encouragement as you get there, while you guys do the heavy lifting and hard work necessary so in the end, we’ll all celebrate together in the kingdoms you’ve created!

Dad

Find Your Way To The Target – Message To My Sons

09 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by jdicochea in Baseball Equals Life, Confessional, Finding Happiness, Hope, Looking forward, Reflection

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Accountability, Family, Future, Guidance, Happiness, Inspiration, Joy, Life, Motivation, Self-Help, Sharing, Sports, The Journey

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I’ve learned it’s best to remember that as you move forward racing towards your stars, the target never changes no matter what we unexpectedly encounter.  A change in goals is never the option, just adjustments in the directions to get them.  

You know I never had a “plan B” in the event I didn’t go to law school and I guess if I did, I’d probably have quit along the way and given up on a lifelong dream knowing I could settle for a “realistic” alternative.  There were obstacles that either were put in my way or I threw down myself but my “plan B” was always to just change the route and keep pushing until I got there in the end.  I was too stubborn or stupid to understand that maybe I couldn’t get to where I wanted when others had their silent doubts that it would ever happen.

The point is that the goals you know you want and can get to never, ever change on anyone else’s terms or forecasts until you find out what the end of the road reveals and you know why?  I firmly believe in you from what I know and have seen for so long to the extent that your goals don’t need a “plan B”, at least at this stage of your young life since you’re probably only a few steps away from them or closer than you know.  

Sometimes all that’s required is just a change in outlook and trajectory when things don’t go as initially planned since our capacity to achieve all of our individual dreams will always be there.  All it takes is you’re willingness to put in the time and work to get them and, ignore those who predict your own personal outcome when they don’t know enough about you or weren’t ever capable of doing the same things. 

Very few things succeed on their own or by accident, or on the first attempts, and/or without a rebalancing of the mechanisms that take us to the revelations that await and are meant for us so never give up.  Just don’t be locked into one approach and if necessary, do it differently to do it better than everyone else chasing the same things.

Remember, I want you to “have it all”, not because I’m your dad existing in delusion but because I know that you’re on the right side of history where so many have done much more beyond what you seek with a helluva lot less!

Never Defeated – Thoughts To My Sons

25 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by jdicochea in Baseball Equals Life, Finding Happiness, Hope, Looking forward, Reflection, Sports Equals Life

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Accountability, Faith, Family, Future, Guidance, Happiness, Inspiration, Life, Motivation, Self-Help, Sharing, Sports, The Journey

“Obstacles cannot crush me.  Every obstacle yields to stern resolve.  He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.” – Leonardo da Vinci

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Don’t Doubt, Just Do – Thoughts To My Sons

14 Monday Jan 2019

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Accountability, Family, Future, Guidance, Inspiration, Life, Motivation, Self-Help, Sports, The Journey

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Posted by jdicochea | Filed under Baseball Equals Life, Finding Happiness, Hope, Looking forward, Reflection

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Giving Life To Our Dreams – Thoughts To My Boys

05 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by jdicochea in Finding Happiness, Gratitude, Hope, Looking forward, Reflection

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Faith, Family, Future, Guidance, Happiness, Inspiration, Joy, Life, marriage, Peace, Self-Help, Sharing, Sports, Thanks, The Journey

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(I saw a documentary today about Coach Valvano and it seemed more than appropriate to re-post these thoughts I shared before about this marvelous man and his legacy.)

6/19/16

“When you have a dream and you love each other and keep believing in a dream, you can accomplish miracles!” – Jim Valvano talking about the 1983 North Carolina Championship Basketball Team

It’s no secret that I’m a diehard fan of Coach “V” as one would surmise from my repeated use of the quotes from and references to him.   Maybe one would think it’s because I was witness to the sports miracle that was accomplished when he led his 1983 NC State basketball team on the most unlikely and magical run to the NCAA tournament finals where they upset a vastly more talented Houston team (two future NBA hall of gamers) in the greatest upset in tournament history.

Now come on, it’s just sports which certainly produces so many amazing storylines and admittedly, this one is certainly more memorable by how it remains as part of our sport’s culture to this day as an inspiration to underdogs and afterthoughts in not just sports, but all areas of society.  But sports moments are just that, snapshots of a particular portal of competitive endeavors that we get reminded of, generally when the appropriate circumstances warrants its introduction into our psyche in some manner and degree.

Still in its overall affect, did it inspire me to change the way I approach life?  Well, I am certain it did in the lessons I’ve used to guide and motivate my children when challenged and by extension, what I’m authoring now.  Or, did it help to improve the treatment of something like cancer for countless patients afflicted with the disease?  Well we know it did by the growth and contributions of the “Jimmy V Foundation” that he created after his life was ruthlessly assaulted, and before it was taken, by cancer.  But here’s what has to be recognized:  had that 1983 sports storyline not been created, it’s likely the birth of the “legend” and fame of “Coach V” would not have emerged to give birth to his organization when it was established and its astronautical growth thereafter.  That foundation came about too late to save his life or my parents lives, but in a miraculous twist to his legacy, the byproduct of its research and the evolution of cancer treatment saved his daughter’s life when she was diagnosed with breast cancer years later.

I ponder this quote by Thurl Bailey, a player from that 1983 team, in reflecting back on his former coach as one of the most beautiful expressions of praise that any man could ever hope to be described or remembered for by those who reflect upon their knowledge of that existence.  “Everything he accomplished and everything he was as a person is the essence of the man!”.  If only I should be so fortunate to be honored with similar accounting of my days here in my particular universe but hey, I’m still making a conscious effort and I’m constantly an evolving work in progress.

So in my mind it’s about the collective and enduring power of the man who turned out to be more than just a basketball coach beyond that victory in 1983.  It’s exponentially about his words, the way he lived, the people he touched and inspired, and his final acts before he died that profoundly separated himself to be among the upper echelon of immensely extraordinary humans that I’ve witnessed in my lifetime.

Now back to “Coach V’s” influence; you have to remember that he was diagnosed with terminal cancer leading to an abundance of tumors that spread throughout his body but still his final goal remained to his dying day, as reflected in a note he wrote to himself that was accidentally found by his wife in the pocket of his dry cleaning was, to “beat cancer”!  He did that, maybe not in his own individual quest but for the thousands of others he impacted through the man he was, whose lives he affected during his lifetime, and whose lives he SAVED through the work of the “V Foundation” including his daughter as noted above.  I mean it’s one thing to give birth to a child but what greater accomplishment can be achieved by a parent than being personally responsible for saving his/her physical life and in a way, gifting them with another?

What a legacy (or maybe that’s just me)!  I can say I was blessed to watch that championship game and the ones that were televised during that magical run when I was so much younger and not insulated from its impact, due to the abundance of information available these days that leads to an overindulgence of stimulation that can negate our awareness of what’s happening right in front of our eyes.  But goodness gracious sakes alive, I’m so much older and I needed someone like “Coach V” back then and still need my memory of him morphing into something greater than that one tournament to keep my eyes on the prizes that continue to happen in front of these eyes!  Otherwise I might have gone crazy or emotionally diluted by too many of the things introduced in my life that could have overwhelmed that vision.

I may f’ing hate cancer for taking both my parents but my hope and faith in life’s possibilities, probabilities, and likelihoods is still strong by how they fought it, and through “Coach V’s” efforts that have carried on well beyond each of their passings, because I’m still here to better my existence to honor them.  It’s because of my hope and faith in most things that I still battle to garner every ounce I can from the things that feed my optimism for each day I have been given while I step over or around the pratfalls that produce disillusion and negativity because, they too often introduce themselves to try to steal life’s basic, simple, elegance that I choose to believe in.

So God gave me another day to persevere in how I want to live it and I thank Him because it allows me to build on “the essence of the man” I want to be.  A work in progress?  Yep, but my destiny at least has a better direction from those that have and continue to inspire me like my parents, “Coach V”, and anyone who makes a contribution towards whatever remarkable conclusion I systematically strive to achieve.

So I’ll end with one last quote because it’s a favorite and one I use as a reminder of how I want to see what’s ahead of me:  “We will never have a perfect world, but it’s not romantic or naive to work toward a better one.” – Steven Pinker

All Your Dreams – Message To Christian

16 Friday Nov 2018

Posted by jdicochea in Baseball Equals Life, Finding Happiness, Hope, Looking forward, Reflection, Sports Equals Life

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Accountability, Faith, Family, Future, Guidance, Happiness, Inspiration, Joy, Life, Motivation, Peace, Self-Help, Sharing, Sports, The Journey

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(National Signing Day 11/14/18)

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. – Carl Sagan

Remember Son, a dream come true is rarely ever an ending but oftentimes, the first steps of your next dreams waiting to be realized and come true as well. – Joe Dico

Obstacles – Thoughts To My Sons

24 Wednesday Oct 2018

Posted by jdicochea in Baseball Equals Life, Finding Happiness, Hope, Looking forward, Reflection, Sports Equals Life

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Faith, Family, Future, Guidance, Happiness, Inspiration, Joy, Life, Motivation, Self-Help, Sharing, Sports, The Journey

“Obstacles cannot crush me.  Every obstacle yields to stern resolve.  He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

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(1st CIF baseball championship in school history after 100 years leading to another following year.)

 

Be Godlike! – Message To My Sons

09 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by jdicochea in Baseball Equals Life, Finding Happiness, Hope, Looking forward, Sports Equals Life

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Accountability, Faith, Family, Future, Guidance, Happiness, Inspiration, Joy, Life, Motivation, Self-Help, Sharing, Sports, The Journey

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” ~ Michelangelo

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Embrace Each Opportunity – Thoughts To My Sons

10 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by jdicochea in Baseball Equals Life, Confessional, Finding Happiness, Hope, Looking forward, Reflection

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Accountability, Future, Guidance, Happiness, Inspiration, Joy, Life, Motivation, Self-Help, Sharing, Sports, The Journey

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” ~ Stephen Covey

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