My Dad had a saying. Well, that’s not completely true, my Dad actually had many sayings. While I rolled my eyes at him in my younger years, I now find myself trumpeting them to my family, my friends, and my athletes. Here was one of my Father’s favorites, which he dubbed “The Seven P’s”
‘Prior Proper Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance’
I can still hear the way it sounded rolling off his lips. My dad loved to emphasize the word ‘preparation.’ My Father loved to prepare. He loved to prepare the guns and ammo the night before a big hunt. He loved to prepare the meat and let it marinate overnight before the next day’s barbeque. And he loved to prepare his children for the lives we would one day lead. When I want to check the heart of an athlete in the gym, my first step is to check their preparation.
You perform the way you prepare. That’s my modern-day spin on my old man’s saying. Once the clock starts, it’s too late. If your “pre-drink” is still jostling in your stomach because you walked in five minutes after class started because you stayed up too late watching your favorite show, what do you expect? I’m just going to hit you with the hard truth right here, because I know you can handle it. Your priorities are revealed in your preparation. There’s no better example of this than weight loss. If you want to lose weight, scientists have discovered that you need to eat right and exercise. I don’t care if it’s Keto, Atkins, Paleo, Zone, Block, Macro, or whatever’s coming next, if you put quality nutrients in your body and move it on a regular basis, you will see results. But in order to do it consistently, you have to prepare. You need to meal plan, you need to shop, you need to prep your foods, you need to package and organize it all. So, if by week four, you’ve found yourself at the drive-thru again because you just, “didn’t have time,” you don’t have a nutrition problem, you have a priority problem.
Priorities are revealed in the way we prepare our spiritual lives as well. It’s one thing to say you want a peaceful life. It’s another to be the first to apologize or forgive. You may have the best intentions in the world of developing patience, but if you can’t drive more than five minutes in the slow lane without being frustrated, you don’t have a patience problem, you have a priority problem. Spiritually speaking, God must be the priority. Which means you’re not. I know that may be tough to read, but it’s true. The greatest experiences you’ll have in life will come when you focus on someone, or something, other than yourself. Not because you don’t matter. But because your priority will dictate the way you prepare. And prior proper preparation prevents piss-poor performance.