Weight watchers

Anyone that knows me, knows that I have always struggled with my weight.  In February I stepped on the scale and was disgusted with what I saw. I weighed more than I ever had, it was time to do something about it.  I joined weight watchers and have have lost 40 pounds since then.  I still have a long ways to go.  I run or walk 5 days a week and am starting to really enjoy it. 

I have recently gotten into a rut and am having a hard time getting motivated to lose the next 20. I will find a way to do it, I just don't know how yet. 

I may be down- but I'm not out.

Catching up. High school reunion

Last month I attended my high school 25th reunion.  I had not been to any of my previous reunions. After high school I never really looked back.  With facebook I have connected with. A few old classmates and established friendships with some that I missed out on for one reason or another.  I had a pretty good time at the reunion. It was fun to catch up for a couple of minutes.   The jury is still out as to whether or not I will go to the next one.

While we were in CA we took advantage of the opportunity to visit Disneyland, sea world, USC campus and an angels game.  It was great to get away but was very nice to get back home.

Missed Calling

As many of you know, I went back to school after my divorce to get my bachelor's degree. I got my degree in business management with an emphasis in marketing. I figured that this would be a useful degree and I would have little trouble finding employment. I couldn't have been more wrong.

So, now as I look back, I think about what I really enjoy doing and what brings me the most joy. The one thing that keeps coming back to me is working with kids and coaching athletics. I have been associated with many outstanding coaches that have influenced my life as well as the lives of many others.

If I were to pursue the path of being an educator and coach, that would work well with my family situation as well. Right now, I have no idea if or when I will remarry. So, as a single father raising 4 children, I need to be around for them.

I have a lot of research to do to find out what would be involved in this decision. I gladly welcome any insight or opinions from my friends.

Who is important ?

There is a lot on my mind this morning. I am not sure how I can delicately approach one of my subjects, so I am not sure it I will…. Guess I will see where this takes me.

 

Why do we keep people in our lives that are not healthy for us? We all have friends, acquaintances, and sometimes even family members that we know only cause problems, heartache or pain. Knowing this, why don't we cut them loose?

I tend to think that we hang onto these people because at one point we had a good relationship with them, and somewhere deep inside we believe that if we try hard enough, or want it bad enough, the relationship can become normalized again. I have a few of those that I struggle with. It is hard to talk yourself into cutting them off completely and committing to not having anything to do with them at all.

But, the longer we wait, the harder it gets and sometimes even the situation worsens. There is a saying that says I can never enough friends… well I would like to change that to say You can never have enough GOOD friends, but one bad friend is more than enough.

Life is short enough as it is, spend the time cultivating friendships that will grow and produce good fruit. Trim your garden of the weeds as it were.

 

The second subject is indirectly connected to the first, dealing with a fractured family. What do you do when your extended family makes a conscious choice to avoid you and keep you out of your life? I have a sister that is like this. They live 12 hours away; will drive within 5 minutes of our house on their way to a vacation spot without even as much as a phone call. While I am mostly ok with this, I have not had a relationship with this sister for many years. At the same time it still hurts, and some of her children have picked up on this practice of hers. Fortunately, God blessed me with two sisters. My other sister lives 10 minutes away and is the best sister I could ever hope for. She was there with me day after day while my mom was in the hospital before she passed away, has been there with me though my father's health problems, we have spent countless hours at sporting events watching each other's kids. I was also able to enjoy a couple of cruises with her, all great memories.

I don't know what my future holds, but I do know that wherever life takes me, my relationship with her will always remain a priority because of the time that we have spent together.

My message today is simple, let the people in your life that are important know how much they mean to you. Spend the time with those that mean the most.

Been a while…..

I think it is time to start my blog up again. Fortunately nobody reads it anyway. There is so much that has happened since I last wrote; football season, wrestling season, mackenzie's pro start competition, her school dances, dad had a quadruple bypass, kid's having teenage growing pains…

 

So, where to start?

Teamwork

team

Definition

Group of people with a full set of complementary skills
required to complete a task, job, or project. Team members (1) operate with a high
degree of interdependence, (2) share
authority and responsibility for self-management, (3) are accountable for the collective performance, and (4) work toward a common
goal and shared rewards(s). A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual
commitment
creates
synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members.

taken from businessdictionary .com

"It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn't matter who gets the credit. "

~ Unknown

"If a team is to reach its potential, each player must be willing to subordinate his personal goals to the good of the team."

~ Bud Wilkinson

Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.-

Vince Lombardi

These teams are considered to be among the best sports teams EVER

• 2007 New England Patriots
  
• 1989 San Francisco 49ers
  
• 1978 Pittsburg Steelers
  
• 1975 Cincinnati Reds
  
• 1984 Boston Celtics
  
• 1985 Los Angeles Lakers
  
• 1998 New York Mets
  
• 1980 USA Hockey Team
  

Growing up children always want to be on " so and so's " team. They dream of being on that winning team, or the team with the awesome coach. They watch with envy as they see the other teams receive their trophy, celebrate another victory, score another touchdown. I believe that this is normal behavior. Out of all of my years of coaching soccer, baseball, football and wrestling I do not think that I have ever had a player come up to me and say he hopes our team isn't good. Even the most elite of athletes in the world will experience defeat. Yesterday, The University of Alabama's football team was playing The University of South Carolina is a huge football game. There has been all sorts of hype about the quarterback for Alabama. He had not lost a football game that he started since he was in 8^th grade. As fate would have it, that first loss came yesterday. Did the quarterback lose the game? NO, the Alabama Crimson Tide did.

As my children have all participated in different sports and on different teams we have had great coaches, and not so great coach, winning teams and losing teams. What made the good coaches good? The good coaches were the ones that brought the teams together in purpose. They had a goal that the coach got all of the players to buy into. He saw the greatness that they could achieve by working together. When those teams were all working towards a unifying goal, they did not mind sacrificing for the good of the team. In soccer, only one person kicks the ball into the net… but the rest of the team provided the support and passes to get to that point that the shot could be taken. In football, only one person can catch the ball or run the ball in for the score, but there were 10 other people on the field each fulfilling his responsibility for that score to happen.

When a coach drafts a team, each player is selected because of the skills, talents, traits and abilities that they will contribute to the team. Some players are specialized and some players are utility players, but the coach saw something in them that would help his team attain its goal.

The name of my blog is "Team Johnson". My team is different than the traditional team, I didn't get to draft or pick my team. If I had picked my team, I would have still picked the team that I have. My team is made up of wonderful players that I would take onto the playing field of life any day of the week. Is my team perfect? No, Do they have the best coach in the league? Not even close. But I see the potential of what they can become. My challenge is to get them to buy into the greatness that can be achieved by bonding together and working together to achieve our goal. As coach, it is my obligation to not give up on my team during the hard times. I have to be willing to put the individual time in after practice to help the player that needs my help.

Take a look at your own team… are you ready for the big game? Let your team know you love them and will never stop believing in them.

Fight On!