As I am sure most of you know by now, this phrase has been popularized by the eccentric Philadelphia Sixer, Joel Embiid. In light of the the NBA season commencing, I felt it is only right to apply this phrase to describe life at the moment here in Ireland. Two months ago I, like every other Victory Scholar, flew across the Atlantic with a lot of questions and even more optimism. I trusted the fact that this could potentially be one of the best years of my life. We are nearing the end of October now and I believe I am correct with my assumption.
Trusting the process, while a tremendous slogan, is a little broad. The beauty of the phrase is that it can be applied to so many different and intriguing processes aside from basketball….but we will get to that in a bit. First I would like to analyze this saying as a player. It is a bit daunting to show up as ‘the yankee’ and contribute and enhance an already well established team. The coach has been here for years and teammates have experience with each other, so how am I going to fit? I have realized now I have to put trust into this program, and with that my relations with my coach and teammates will undoubtedly improve. Unlike Embiid, I do not have a few years to trust the process; however, I have seen tremendous improvement as a player on this IT Carlow team in just 4 weeks. It is a beautiful thing to attribute this intangible asset of trust to tangible results. Just 4 weeks ago we opened our season with a blowout loss to a solid, undefeated team in Neptune. Just yesterday my team and I were massively disappointed in ourselves for not beating the same team. We lead the entire game and let it slip in the final minutes. Although we did not achieve the W, I am ecstatic about how far we have come as a team and what we plan to achieve.
In addition, I am trusting the process as a head coach. This has been extremely rewarding in the fact that I get to see the progress of young kids. One thing I have learned is the importance of knowing names. Getting to know every single kids names on 3+ teams is not an easy task, but it has such a profound effect. “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language” – Dale Carnegie. It allows me to instruct and coach in a much more personable way, as opposed to shouting a direction that is followed with “you in the green shirt.” Seeing these kids start to gel with one another and apply the things we have coached is a process that will never get old.
This slogan can also be applied to processes outside the basketball world. First and foremost, to the classroom! The obligatory ice breakers and ‘syllabus week’ are long behind us as we gear up into November. Group projects, presentations, and papers are beginning to accumulate. In order to avoid any excuse of not turning in my best work, I have to trust myself, as well as my fellow pupils I will be working with, to really apply myself to each subject. From entrepreneurship to finance, there is a plethora of topics and different process to comprehend and the wealth of knowledge to come from them is invigorating. The days are becoming a bit shorter, the weather a bit ‘fresher’, and the importance of that warm cup of joe in the morning has increased. Looking forward to the journeys ahead in November.
