There is a really inspirational story developing involving the Indianapolis Colts football team this year. Their new coach, Chuck Pagano, was recently diagnosed with leukemia and had to take a leave of absence. While the departure of the coach was emotional, it wasn’t expected to impact the performance of the team because the Colts were the worst team in the league last year. Add that to the fact that they have a rookie QB, Andrew Luck, and all expected it be ‘better luck next year’ time in Indy.
Rather than a downward spiral, however, the situation has inspired the team. Indy won in dramatic fashion yesterday to up their record to 5-3, 3 more wins than all of 2011. Coach Pagano was on hand after the game and gave an emotional speech to the team. He told the team that they were successful because they were living in the vision rather than living in the circumstances. He then drew a comparison to his own person situation, indicating that he had chosen to “live in the vision of how his life will be after he beats cancer rather than living in the circumstances of today”. Powerful stuff.
I couldn’t help but draw a comparison to people and their careers. So often I see individuals living in the circumstances of their career rather than creating a career vision within which they aspire to work.
Individually, what can you do to live within your career vision? If you are a leader, how can you help your employees live in their career vision?
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