What You Already Know

Last night I dreamed I was playing on a soccer team.  Our team was having trouble coming together.  Instead of working as a unit and trusting one another, we were constantly bickering about petty differences and perceived slights.

One day, our coach created a drill that split the team in two groups competing against each other.  He gave one group many unfair advantages, awarding free kicks for no apparent reason at outrageously close distances to the goal, making it easy for one side to have the upper hand. It would have been easy for this to exacerbate the friction among the team.  But remarkably, the advantaged side responded by saying, “no we don’t want to treat the other players this way.  We want to come together.  We want a solution that’s good for all of us, too, because we are all part of one team.”

It’s easy to say that the drill brought the team together. But I think there’s a distinction to make.  The drill itself did not bring the team together. Rather, the drill led each individual to have an experience, which led to individual decisions that collectively brought the team together.  From participating in the drill, the individuals came to recognize that they already wanted to treat each other like teammates, and with this realization each individual made a choice to participate in resolving the fracture that had occurred. The drill did not teach something novel, but rather drew attention to something each person already knew. 

What are the things you already know deep down, but sometimes forget?  What are the activities that remind you of these truths?  What would it take to create more rhythms, exercises and experiences that help you remember the things you want most?  So that when you stray off course, you’re able to recover more consistently and more quickly.