The Nick I’m referring to is Nick Saban, the highly successful football coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. In case you don’t know, his overall coaching record is 144 wins and 21 losses. By the way, teams he has coached have also won five national titles (and possibly a sixth later this year).
So, whether you’re starting out in the business world or are winding down your business career, I truly believe that Nick’s advice can definitely help each of us improve our lives.
The key to Nick’s success is summed up in what is called The Process, and here’s a brief description of The Process: “ If you successfully execute what’s important at the moment to the best of your ability, then your chances of ultimately accomplishing what you want increase exponentially.”
Simple, yet profound!
In viewing The Process, one finds that it has several components.
One component of The Process is prioritization. To apply this effectively to our lives, we need to ask ourselves if, at any given moment, are we dedicating our time to the item that is of highest priority? How often during the day do we ask ourselves this question? I don’t know about you, but I periodically get sidetracked.
A second component of The Process is giving 100% of our effort to the task we’re working on. I’m not going to debate whether we should give 100% or 110% effort. In coaching his team, Nick expects his team to put 100% effort into every action, whether on the practice field or on the playing field. Yet how frequently are we putting every ounce of energy into the task were performing?
A third component of The Process is focus. In a world where text messages, email, voice mail, Facebook, and Instagram are available, we need to evaluate how often we are focused on the task at hand with complete disregard for these potential sources of distraction.
A final component of The Process is execution. We all have the ability to plan, but how well do we execute those plans on an hour by hour basis?
Now that we understand The Process, are we willing to apply The Process to our lives? Are we willing to make the required change? If we are, while we may not win a national championship, our overall performance will definitely improve. When this happens, and when you’re asked about the key to your improvement, all you need to say is “ROLL TIDE”.