Thank God it’s Fundamental Friday. This weekly article will venture into the fundamental elements of a variety of aspects of our lives and present the questions to us all, “Are we fundamentally sound?”
Preparation: The fundamental word for this Friday. Preparation is the action or process of making ready or being made ready to use or consider. And/or something done to get ready for an event or undertaking. Success in any realm is preceded by preparation. Benjamin Franklin quotes speaks to this statement:
“By Failing to Prepare, You are Preparing to Fail” – Benjamin Franklin
In every sport, preparation is a process witness through practice. Football’s preparation begins with fundamental skills which many football players receive as the participate in football through out their life. This process present age and maturity skills sets that allow each player to grow in football basics. However, there also exist a weekly preparation that each team embraces based on the team they will be facing in the following week.

This preparation requires coaches to study their next opponent and use their existing playbook and/or develop plays that will attack their opponent’s weakness. The players, who are football savvy, now have to hone in on specific plans that will be beneficial against a particular opponent. A week seems like plenty of time, but in this world filled with procrastination, many teams are not prepared for the game completely on game day.
Procrastination is the action of delaying or postponing something. It is clearly the enemy of preparation. Procrastination can be very blunt at times and extremely subtle in some cases. Things like the weather and illness are example of elements we don’t control that lead to procrastination. Television, opportunities, and avoidance of hard work are examples of self-inflicted procrastination.
Generally speaking, we can observe the teams and players that have prepared for their event by attitudes, actions of each player and its effect on the team’s success. Preparation does not always equate to success, but without it, most team definitely failed.

Football is great example because we can see the importance of a lifelong process of maturing in the sport while embracing a weekly preparation process that allows for athlete and teams to be successfully on a weekly basis. In boxing, preparing the body is lifelong but preparing for the next fight is specific. In this case, boxers can train up to six months or more based on their opponent.
In both cases, preparation does not begin with the next opponent nor does end after that game or event is over. Preparation is a continuous process that we should embrace in order to be able to present our best efforts. Our lives, especially, the opportunities that we do (or don’t) are rooted in our preparation to take advantage of any opportunities that may present itself. In coaching and mentoring student athletes, opportunities are options that only appear when they are prepared.
The perfect job opportunity is only an opportunity if an individual is prepared to taken of it. Whether that’s training, experience or simply applying for the job in a timely fashion, we have to do what is necessary to make options exist.
In Myles Munroe book, “Wisdom from Myles Munroe,” he states that the words for crisis in Japanese and Chinese are the same as the word opportunity.

Basically, if we are continuously preparing ourselves for what God has called us to do or for what we have envision for ourselves, then any situation (good or bad) can be deemed as an opportunity. Too often the thought of preparation is only in positive situation. But the reality is every adverse situation is truly an opportunity when we continuously prepare ourselves. When a person is laid off from a job that is an opportunity to find a better job.
The questions are: Do you have a current resume? Have you been applying for jobs? Have you had any training or taken a course to improve your knowledge? Have you been on any interviews?
Each of us are presented with a variety of opportunities every day. God opens doors for us and it is up to us to walk through these open doors. We tend not to walk through these doors of opportunity because we are not prepared to do so. Preparation does not begin when we see an opportunity. In this case, the lack of preparation is exposed when we see an opportunity that we are unable to take advantage of.
One of the many fundamental elements of success is being prepared for any and every situations. In going through the processes and making ourselves ready, we are essentially creating an environment in which our success will occur in spite of any situation, especially adverse situations. Let’s be prepared for our future, for our success, for every opportunity that we may not see but is clearly awaiting us. This will require each of us to acknowledge the enemy of preparation: procrastination.
Acknowledge in the sense of understanding what procrastination is and avoid it at all cost.
As our journey in life continues, let’s carefully examine ourselves and our goals. Continue to strive for success by taken time and making every effort possible to prepare ourselves. We must move intentionally with purpose and enthusiasm that makes every situation an opportunity or step toward the opportunity that we want in life.
Until next week, remember to ask yourself, “Are you fundamentally sound?”
I am Ricardo Pryor, “The Motivator.” My education in mathematics combined with my coaching / mentoring expertise has provided an opportunity for me to visualize and incorporate the fundamentals of life, sports and faith to create a strong foundation for success. It is my goal to motivate other to master the fundamentals in order to reach a level of success built on an indestructible foundation.
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