Got “WA”?

“If you get up in the morning to have a bad day today you will rarely disappoint yourself.  Stop complaining!! Differentiate yourself from your competition.  Don’t be a duck.  Be an eagle.  Ducks quack and complain.  Eagles soar above the crowd.”—Dwayne Dyer

Visions do one of two things—they grow or they die.  What has yours done this week?  

Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo finished his 1995 Rookie-of-the-Year season with a record of 13 wins and 6 losses, a 2.54 ERA and 236 strikeouts in 28 starts.  Near the end of his 1996 season, he made gigantic headlines by pitching a 9-0 no-hitter against the Rockies in Denver.  After the game, Nomo expressed through an interpreter that it was the TEAM effort and the TEAM standing that mattered to him the most.

Japanese baseball players use the term “WA” to describe people like Nomo.  “WA” is an expression meaning that a person sublimates personality and personal goals for the success of the team.  NBA coach Pat Riley said, “You’ve got to totally get out of yourself and into the unity of the team.  Teamwork is the only way to reach our ultimate goals, to create the breakthroughs that define our career, to fulfill our lives with a sense of lasting significance.”  Nomo had it-WA.

What is your role in the success of your team?  You know, after the record setting seventy-two win 1995-1996 season of the Chicago Bulls, head coach Phil Jackson described what it takes to win.  He said, “Creating a successful team is essentially a spiritual act.  It requires the individual involved to surrender his self-interest for the greater good so that the whole adds up to more than the sum of its parts.”

Find a role on your team and fill it.  Encouraging and building up others is an indispensable part of a winning attitude.  Pressure tightens you up and keeps you from doing your best work.  Fun lubricates your mind and your spirit and keeps the team attitude intact. 

Be a person that is adaptable, creative, coachable, and eager to try new ideas and new approaches…BE FLEXIBLE.   As circumstances change, we have to change too.  

I am telling you-the synergy of having everyone on the team attuned to the same vibrations—that is something beautiful to behold…and very hard to defeat.

If you want to succeed, take a lesson from Hideo Nomo.  Get “WA”!!!!!

Have a wonderful week!