The Willingness to Grow
Everyone wants to be successful, and everyone wants their group to improve and place better at competitions. But not everyone is WILLING to do to the work required. There is an important distinction between the desire to succeed and the willingness to do what is necessary.
Like the proverbial horse led to water, you can’t make someone do the work. You can inspire them, show them how it’s done, and give them the information and tools they need. But you can’t do the work for them.
Growing is inconvenient and uncomfortable. But what is required for real improvement is not Herculean. We started the Marching Roundtable podcast 10 years ago because we often found ourselves watching a group and thinking “If that director and staff just new a COUPLE of things, this could be so much better. These students could be having more success and enjoying this more.” So we decided to share information to help people.
The trick is getting someone to decide to watch or listen and learn. This requires sacrifice. It’s all about giving your time and attention. And to make time to learn and grow, you have to give up things, take time AWAY from other “less productive” pursuits. We all know we have these “less productive pursuits,” things that take our time and don’t serve us in the long run.
If you want to get into shape and start to exercise, you may have to give up an hour of late night TV so you have that hour to move and improve your health. If you want your group to do better, you may need to stay home and watch a webinar rather than go our with friends one night. You may take an hour on Sunday and watch a video or listen to a podcast instead of spending that hour another way.
No one can make someone do these things, but we can provide the opportunity and try to inspire them and explain what they could get out of it. For our part, we focus on the people who ARE watching and listening and who are willing to grow. We are here to help them in any way we can.
People will sometimes send me a note saying how much they appreciated a webinar or podcast and how helpful they found it. I hope that if this is an experience you have had, you will tell your friends and colleagues about it also. They may just be inspired to watch and listen and become WILLING to do the work to actually get better. Their students will thank them!
Tim Hinton
March 5, 2021
