This We Can Practice

Yesterday we opened a real can o’ worms. Or a Pandora’s box, whichever container best fills your imagination with colorful imagery - and a touch of apprehension. The latter quality necessary because we are riding at full speed into the unknown. Hoping to shine as many lumens as possible onto a subject that currently lives in the dark. I will give you the broad strokes and then we’ll jump in. Yesterday we talked about something we call ACQ. 

ATHLETIC CHARACTER QUOTIENT. Never heard of it?

ACQ defined, is an athletes total package. It includes the basics of sports participation and the values that comprise success; speed, strength, endurance, ability to focus, knowledge of rules, attitude, respect, willingness to sacrifice, humility and gratitude. It also looks at one’s mixture of mind, body and spirit. It asks a single question of the athlete, UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS WILL YOU QUIT? 

Examples are everywhere. How is it possible that an athlete, severely handicapped in terms of height, weight, strength and speed still manages to (occasionally) win? What is the deciding factor when these beautiful occasions occur? Can we isolate three of the possible elements to be: 1) smarts, 2) desire or 3) luck? If true, as I believe it to be, why do we spend so little time in the research and development of them? 

Let’s start with smarts. The athlete with a high ACQ is smart. She has spent countless hours researching fundamentals, details and related tangential data in support of her quest. She has reached out to professionals for coaching, support, motivation and counsel. She has trained her body and fine-tuned her ability to operate under highly stressful conditions with a relaxed focus. She knows her stuff and competes with a joyous attitude of balance and harmony. She understands those to be critical in order to achieve optimal experience and peak dynamic flow. She is a gamer. 

Another athlete with a high ACQ has the temperament of a honey badger. He will not take slow for an answer. Although smaller, he is smarter than most of his competitors, and always ready to challenge. He has a steady stare that states his intentions to match his will with yours, as he knows this to be his advantage. He thoroughly understands that time plus movement equals energy and wastes none in getting to full speed in the blink of an eye. He can intimidate. 

‘Luck is the residue of design’ famously quipped Vince Lombardi, he of the ‘the effort to win is everything” quote. Someone else, maybe Will Rogers, commented that the harder he works the better his luck. There is a connection of dots whenever these are found in the same relative proximity. Hard work, effort, desire, sacrifice, mental toughness and the ability to manage them in three part harmony will create better chances of success. What in some circles is erroneously labeled as luck. 

These are but a few of the elements that comprise one’s Athletic Character Quotient. The most successful among us discovered long ago that the mind is physical and that the body thinks. 

Test the theory during your next workout. Allow your mind to do the heavy lifting and put yourself in the center of the powerful river we call dynamic-flow as your body considers the timing, pacing and trajectory of your relentless search for peak experience. Your body will know it and your mind will embrace its new musculature and frequency. 

And perhaps most importantly, once the physical mind and the thinking body unite, they ask your spirit to join in the magical dance of the intrepid ACQ. 

This we can practice.