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	<title>WIRL Project &#187; Personal</title>
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	<description>What It&#039;s Really Like.</description>
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		<title>D: Dreams &#8211; What It&#8217;s Really Like</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/d-dreams-what-its-really-like/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/d-dreams-what-its-really-like/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 Jul 2015 07:30:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Brody]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life/Leisure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Love/Relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News/Sports]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work/Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ABCs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Big Shot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dreams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Game Winner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Goals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hero]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[My Team]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WE WIN]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=7551</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This post is part of a series titled, “A-B-Cs – What It’s Really Like”. Each week a new letter and its word will be revealed. Each word’s explanation will illustrate significant personal meaning, application and ultimately demonstrate, What It’s Really Like…  “Most of us spend a lot of time dreaming of the future, never realizing a little arrives each day.” We’ve all played out the hero scenario in the driveway, at the gym, or in the office cubicle: You’re down one with the ball in your hand. The countdown begins…3…step back…2…turn…1…fire…BUZZER…bottom of the cylinder…GAME WINNER. When I was growing up, I played out this exact same scenario well over 10,000 times shooting hoops in my driveway or at a plastic hoop hanging off of my bedroom door. Multiply that by the countless number of times I fictitiously led a game-winning drive with 2:00 minutes to go in a football game or hit a walk-off homerun with a full-count and two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning.  Back in those days dreams were big and confidence was immeasurable. In those pressure packed situations I was undefeated and always the hero. Earlier this year I hit a milestone birthday. For the life of me, I cannot remember the last time I hit a wastebasket jumper to win the game. Athletics has not been the central focus of my life for some time. After high school, sports quickly evolved into “desk sports” (sports fandom, fantasy leagues and wastebasket hoops). Eventually even these acts become downgraded priorities to other responsibilities. Soon you begin losing track of your dreams and the last time you took a big shot. Did time run out? Did I pass? Did I just stop shooting? Or on the flip-side, did all of my dreams come true? One difficulty in life is dealing with and realizing when dreams change. An extremely difficult lesson for me to learn as a boyfriend turned newlywed was dealing with changing dreams. Instead of individually striving and stopping at nothing to achieve personal life goals I had to learn how to help lift up my wife to reach hers. I will admit that both of our independent mindsets drove us apart a few times before we were married. What took me so long to realize was that my family was my new team.  When we dream together WE WIN. We root for each other. We support each other. We live through each other. When you fall asleep at night, where do you go? Where does your mind take you? Are you alone or are you with your team? I’m at home, surrounded by my family and friends in a familiar environment. I am free of the burdens of finances, geographical distance and work. My team is smiling and I am happy. When I take a moment to think about how my dreams have changed I do not believe that I have stopped shooting, I am just letting some of my other teammates take a few of the final shots.]]></description>
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		<title>C: Courage &#8211; What It&#8217;s Really Like</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/c-courage-what-its-really-like/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/c-courage-what-its-really-like/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Jul 2015 07:30:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Brody]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life/Leisure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Love/Relationships]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[ABCs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bike]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Committment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Confidence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conviction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Courage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Crash]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Faith]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fall]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fatherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life Without Training Wheels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Practice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Training Wheels]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=7314</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This post is part of a series titled, “A-B-Cs – What It’s Really Like”. Each week a new letter and its word will be revealed. Each word’s explanation will illustrate significant personal meaning, application and ultimately demonstrate, What It’s Really Like…  When is the last time you experienced something that was absolutely terrifying? If you survived it, chances are courage played a factor in overcoming the obstacle. Courage comes in all shapes, sizes and various forms. Some courage is engrained or inherited. Some courage needs to be coached. Some courage requires liquid libations. Regardless of appearance, courage is structured similarly at its core. I thought back to times in my life where courage has played a role in the outcome. Learning to ride a bike, to swim and to drive a car are all occasions where a great deal of courage was required to master certain foreign skills. Courage is linked to three other attributes. I believe each of these words have to occur in order for courage to ultimately be achieved. They also happen to each begin with the letter ‘C’: Confidence &#8211;&#62; Conviction &#8211;&#62; Commitment = Courage My father did not believe in training wheels. This was either because he thought we would learn to ride a bike quicker without them or simply because the matching bikes he bought my brother and I did not come with them. Confidence. He convinced us that all we needed was to trust him and believe that we could ride the bike. Conviction. Was I able to ride without falling my first time? No. In fact, I fell several more times before my father let go of the back of my seat. In order for me to ride without assistance I needed to practice. Commitment. I learned to ride a bike before my parents paved our driveway. The entire driveway was gravel limestone. The stakes were high for learning to ride correctly; otherwise it may result in a deeply skinned knee. My parents did not want me riding toward the road. We would start practice rides at the end of the driveway riding back toward the house. The last thing you are taught when learning to ride a bike is steering. Most of the focus is on balancing the bike while pedaling. As our driveway got closer to the garage the turnaround area, it immediately made a 90-degree turn to the left. The driveway itself sat up on a hill that was graded away from the foundation of the driveway and the house. If you continued to go straight after the driveway ended it would take you down a short grassy hill into the backyard. As I stated before the last thing you think about when learning to ride a bike is steering. Eventually, Dad let go in the driveway and I was pedaling straight down the gravel drive, down off of the grassy hill and into the back yard. The final thing you learn to do when riding a bike is braking.  While riding for the first time down a hill without knowledge or skill to steer or stop the bike I made a bee-line straight for the solid aluminum slide and swing set in the backyard. One of my first solo rides came to an end after crashing into the slide. My first ride was certainly not my last. In this case, getting back up on the bike and riding again is the metaphor we are all looking for. Courage. Courage does not grow as we get older. No matter your age, doubt can loom around every corner. The scariest moments that I can recall in my adult life have been marriage, moving away from home and fatherhood. The hardest parts of my marriage were before it even began &#8211; all of which required me to speak. Asking my wife’s parents for her hand in marriage, proposing and repeating vows from our pastor during the ceremony were most terrifying to me out of fear that I might misspeak and mess up. It took a lot of help from the “three C’s” to give me the courage to stand and deliver in those situations. I will never forget the first night we brought Little B home from the hospital. During our days in the hospital I was instilled with confidence and conviction that I was fully prepared to do whatever was needed to care for our newborn baby boy. These feelings were validated by my wife and nursing staff after I was able to accomplish required tasks in a relatively uneventful two and a half days after he was born. We would be sent home at the normal time. Little B easily acclimated to his new home during the daylight hours. Around the time Mommy and Daddy were ready to turn in for the night he began to cry…and wail…and scream. To this point, I had never heard or seen anything like the sounds or emotions that he was exhibiting. During the near 90-minutes that he cried in my arms I began praying and questioning aloud to my wife, God and whoever else might be listening that the people at the hospital did not know what they were doing and sent us home too early. As his crying continued, I remembered my confidence and conviction that I built taking care of him at the hospital. It didn’t matter to what level I was at in either trait – this child was now ours and I was committed to giving him whatever he needs. I used faith (something that will be written about in a later post) in my abilities to step up and meet the needs of the situation. Courage. I will end with a final thought from a journal of quotes that my late Grandmother kept. I refer to it often and its contents may frequent some of my regular posts. “Don’t be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.” &#160;]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A: Adversity &#8211; What It&#8217;s Really Like</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/a-adversity-what-its-really-like/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/a-adversity-what-its-really-like/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2015 08:30:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Brody]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Health/Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life/Leisure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Love/Relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work/Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ABCs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Adversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Compete or Be Beat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life Experience]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=7139</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This post is part of a series titled, “A-B-Cs – What It’s Really Like”. Each week a new letter and its word will be revealed. Each word’s explanation will illustrate significant personal meaning, application and ultimately demonstrate, What It’s Really Like…  I believe one of the single biggest indicators of a person’s character is how one reacts to adversity. In a previous post to the WIRL Project I wrote an open letter to the parents of my baseball players in which I emphasized the importance of experiencing adversity through competition as a means of learning traits such as humility, respect and accountability. Unfortunately, many of these traits have been lost upon the new-age generation in a culture that places heavy importance on the popular front-running winners. There is nothing wrong with embracing accomplishment and the prosperity of hard work. But what happens to those individuals or groups when accomplishments fade and large obstacles loom? I am a firm believer that in the real world life&#8217;s high fives come on the back or the face.  When it&#8217;s going well, many are there to pat you on the back and congratulate you. When things are not going well, it can be a humble, sobering smack across your face. It is between these innate transitions that we learn how to deal with non-ideal situations.  Adversity teaches us to compete or be beat. I recently have read some fascinating editorials stating that America is no longer the top superpower in the world. Much of it revolves around the backpedaling economy, education and scale down of worldwide military presence. Last week during a very awkward home plate pregame meeting with the umpires before a baseball game one of the men discovered that I was a social studies teacher. He immediately asked me how I taught the subject and if it was the &#8220;western civilization&#8221; as he learned it in his day or the &#8220;world&#8217;s view&#8221;. Of course as an educator I have been well trained to navigate neutrally through no-fly zones like politics and religion. I could sense the political undertones of the conversation and was able to produce a statement that was directly on the fence. Something that I said pleased him as he replied, &#8220;Well, good.  I am a firm believer of teaching exceptionalism and that America is the greatest country in the world. We had better keep it that way.&#8221; Hmm. I consider myself patriotic, but I am not sure that I agree with the umpire&#8217;s statement. I think that everyone can agree that our country has had much brighter days. America is currently facing adversity. I am not sure if an attitude of exceptionalism would be the best strategy for rising above and conquering our country&#8217;s major obstacles. Relying on past experiences and favorable outcomes my not always win the day. Adversity is certainly is a bitter pill to swallow, especially for those who have experienced high levels of favorable outcomes in the past. Compete or be beat. The bigger lesson is what we can learn from adversity and what it can teach us. What about adversity on an individual level? Over the past few weeks I have found myself asking several difficult questions about adversity: How can a sixteen-year-old boy recover his life after having his arm bitten off by a shark? How can a race-related mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, intended to segregate and destroy a community, bring a community closer together? How is it that my mother can get herself up to battle a third major cancer diagnosis? Compete or be beat. Each of us faces some type of adversity on a daily basis; no one man&#8217;s burden bigger than another. It is what you do in the midst of that adversity that means the most. Compete or be beat. When faced with adversity, which will you choose?]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The A-B-Cs &#8211; What It&#8217;s Really Like</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/the-a-b-cs-what-its-really-like/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/the-a-b-cs-what-its-really-like/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2015 08:30:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Brody]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life/Leisure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Love/Relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work/Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ABCs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Beyond Basketball]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Coach K]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life Experiences]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Show and Tell Series]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=6906</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the introduction of a series of posts titled, &#8220;A-B-Cs &#8211; What It&#8217;s Really Like&#8221;.  Each week a new word will be revealed. Each word&#8217;s explanation will illustrate significant personal meaning, application and ultimately demonstrate, What It&#8217;s Really Like&#8230;   This week at preschool &#8216;T&#8217; was the letter of the week. Each Friday my son is asked to bring an object from home for show-and-tell that begins with the letter of the week. After about six weeks of this process little B has taken over full responsibility of this task. My wife and I are thankful for this because we usually remember to grab the object on Friday morning right when we are walking out of the door. This week my son chose one of his trains to represent the letter &#8216;T&#8217;. Friday afternoon while he was wildly explaining his full day at summer preschool, I wondered what I would have chosen for show-and-tell. It quickly dawned on me that I had seen something like this before and then I remembered a book my grandmother had purchased for me several years ago. The book is titled, &#8220;Beyond Basketball&#8221; written by Hall of Fame college basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. The book, which is only 171 pages in length, is 40 short essays centered on an important keyword and illustrated with anecdotes from his personal experiences. Coach K chooses a keyword or several keywords from each letter in the alphabet. Each word is then defined through a personal experience (on and off the court) and its application is described. Recalling this book made me realize that this was the adult version of show-and-tell. Beyond that, it gave me an idea for a contribution to the WIRL Project. &#8220;Everyone should be able to write a book like this, illustrating the words that are important to who we are using stories from our own lives.&#8221; &#8211; Coach Mike Krzyzewski, Beyond Basketball Over the next 20+ weeks I plan on choosing one word for each letter in the alphabet to essentially &#8220;show-and-tell&#8221; the meaning of each word and illustrate its function in my life. My hope is through doing this you will also join me in reflecting and sharing your own words that apply to your life to show What It&#8217;s Really Like.]]></description>
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