Today is September 5 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “Do you have a will to win or a will to prepare to win?”
People who achieve their goals either personally or professionally understand that having a will to win is far from enough; they must also have a will to prepare.
The will to prepare must exceed one’s will to win.
One cannot simply just will themselves to win. Fielding H. Yost was the head football coach at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for 25 seasons at the beginning of the twentieth century.
His remarkably successful squads dominated opponents and won several national championships.
During the 1929-30 academic year Yost delivered a speech to teachers in the Public Schools Athletic League of New York City.
His “Wingate Memorial Lecture” included this statement “The will to win. We hear a lot about that. The will and the wish to win, but there isn’t a chance for either one of them to be gratified or to have any value unless there has been a will to prepare to win: the will to prepare for service, to do the things that build and develop our capacity, physical, mental, and moral.”
Yost reiterated this notion during several speeches over time this ‘will to prepare to win’ was adopted by coaches, athletes, and others.
Do you have a will to win or a will to prepare to win?