When 10 minutes isn’t just 10 minutes

I played a bunch of organized sports when I was growing up. As a result I’ve had the opportunity to several develop key relationships, and really understand and value the title “Coach.”

One time, I’ll never forget, a guy was late to basketball practice, and Coach Bills’ practice at the time was (and if you ask me, still should be) that if someone wasn’t accounted for, the team was going to suffer. So if Johnny was late, didn’t call ahead, or didn’t send a note with a friend, the team would be running until he showed up.

Nowadays (in my grumpy old man voice) I see parents pulling up to the soccer game 5 minutes before start and the kid has missed warmups and is walking, not running, tot he side of the field …but I digress.

So one of my teammates was 10 minutes late and the team was running sprints as a result, giving him all the heat we could with dirty looks as he walked in. When he came in he must have said said something to the effect of ” It was just 10 minutes, coach!” which COMPLETELY set Coach Bills off.

At that time he explained something very important. He proceeded to count the number of people in the gym. He didn’t stop at the players on the team, he included the managers, the assistant coaches and probably the custodian. He then multiplied that 10 minutes by the number of people and let us know exactly how much time had been wasted.

I’ll never forget it.

That story came to mind today as I was working through a core values activity for Eating For Abs.

Our core value is: We believe the personal work we do today, has the power to add years of happiness to our lives and to those of the people who love us.

Simply, the changes that we make in Environment, Activity, Rest and Nutrition (E4A tenets) can and will improve our quality of life and therefore our ability to experience more happiness. But it doesn’t stop there. The same way 10 minutes was more like 250 minutes in the time my teammate wasted, every moment of happiness that we create is compounded by the happiness of the people in our lives.

Compare experiencing another birthday celebration with your mom, versus missing it due to illness. Or being able to travel to a family wedding rather than sending a card.

Our moments aren’t just our own. And a healthier happier you means more to your friends and family than you probably acknowledge.

Think about it and have a wonderful evening.

-Coach Be