Definition Misunderstanding

Now that I've become a coach, I find myself thinking of different ways to motivate people and make them think. And not just about a game or an opponent, but more about themselves as individual people. A trip back from Cleveland of 2+ hours on January 3 gave me a ton of time to think up some good "material" (following what may have been my most miserable Browns game as a live spectator in a big loss to the rival Steelers).

I started thinking about various quotes and phrases - dissecting them, instead of just using it and moving on. The first one that crossed my mind - "Life is not fair." Before you do anything else, you have to decide what your definition of "fair" is. Rules are put in place in sports to make sure each team gets a fair chance. The dictionary definition includes the words "honest" and "impartial."

The one I decided fit the best is, "Fair is every person getting what he or she deserves, whether it be immediate or eventual." Or, to make it more cliche, "You get back what you put in." The problem with this idea is that one's payback might come years after the original event.

An example...
You play sports, work your butt off every single day, but never end up being a star. No college scholarships, no major awards, just the satisfaction of knowing you gave everything you had, every single day.

There is no immediate payback directly related to that hard work you put in as an athlete. But maybe it comes later in the form of something like a post-graduation job position at the business of a school athletic booster because he or she knew how hard you worked as an athlete and wanted to take a chance with you in that workplace. Or the payback could include many small "victories" that add up to being "worth it" in the end. I'd say that's fair.

So I decided that my current belief is, "Life is fair; it's not equal." Fairness proves that you get what you deserve. Equality is the idea that all things are the same for everyone. And no matter what we want to believe, life is not equal.

We don't start out at birth with 100 "life points" that we use up as we go, spending 50 on incredible athlete genes or 60 on a genius IQ. Some people get more, some get less, that's just the way it is - and there's no changing that initial inventory. But what you do with that and how you make it work better for you is where fairness comes in.

"Life is fair; it is not equal." It was the way I led off the first of what I'm calling "Coach Hunt's Mentality Meetings" with the freshman basketball team. I vowed to be a coach that taught more than just the game, so this is my start.