This Weekend I am on a Mission

My mission is to step my game up to the level where I belong. Too many things happened last week in practice and in the show and I was not able to be the performer that I am capable of being. Most of it was all little details. Things that are in my control. Things that I have placed so much emphasis on in the past and stressed so much for people to follow that slipped for me. I don’t know why they slipped. I was focusing and I was trying, but I just wasn’t achieving. In other words I just wasn’t as sharp.

Maybe you could chalk it up to an off day? I guess we all have them, but in the past even on my off days I was typically able to step it up come show time. This week I was ready to go, had a great warm up, but once the show started all of the little things went entirely wrong. I’ve gone back and tried to reexamine my pre-show preparation and I can find nothing out of the ordinary. I guess we’ll have to see what this week brings.

As for my approach this week, it is going to be relentless attention to detail. I want to be sure I have all of my business fully taken care of so that I can handle it out on the field. I figure I’ll reach down and pull from my 2002 and 2004 experience here. Those two years I was particularly “on” for the entire season. It felt good and everything felt easy. My approach was relentless and aggressive. It’s a drive to be the best. Something I lost last year, something I haven’t felt the need for this year until now.

Having that drive by yourself does you no good though unless the people around you are willing to work for it as well. I am fortunate to be in a great section, with a lot of talent and experience. We tend to make it look easy, which is really what it should all be about. Making the impossible look easy is your job as a performer. As a section we have some outstanding moments. What we lack is consistency. We are a bit unfocused at times, myself included, because of our larger then life personalities. We all have something to say and we all say it whenever we want. Unfortunately for the greater good of the entire group this is not such a good approach.

For a few weeks now I have been going back and taking a look at the example I have been setting both in the past and currently. Clearly I did not always set the best example. In terms of performance I may have set a great example, but it those times in between where I have caused the real issues. The past few weeks have been a lot more focused from me, and also from the section, and it is becoming evident in our performance. Now if we can just set a good example on the practice field then we might actually be on to something good for the entire group.

We shall see. More importantly I won’t let myself or the group down by not giving everything that I have this weekend. I am preparing myself mentally as of right…….NOW! ($1 to Christine ;-p)

Be prepared to kick names and take ass...or something like that!

See you on the field!