Need to Take More Chances

This is something that I need to get better at in my own life.  Taking risks can be so scary and I tend to be cautious.  Ironic huh?  Here I am having coached football for the last 5 years and I am afraid to take chances in my life.  Another irony to all this is that I got the opportunity to coach at Timpview due to taking a shot in the dark.

So why I haven't I taken more chances with regards to my coaching career?  It isn't because I'm not extremely confident in my ability to coach.  In fact I dare say I could probably go to a program and be able to make a difference to that staff immedately.  Sounds pretty arrogant I know but that is actually the confidence I have received from coaching at Timpview.  Part of the reason I don't take chances is that I tend to get pretty complacent and let's be honest it is nice to coach at a school where your first three years you win a state title.  Still I need to take a chance and put myself out there to continue to progress as a coach.

Let me give you an example of how I didn't take a chance.  Recently I wrote a blog post about how I would rebuild a high school football program.  This became a popular post still receiving traffic till this day.  Guess what I did after writing that post?  I didn't even ever contact the school I wrote about.  I didn't contact any schools that were looking for coaches.  I did nothing just played it safe. 

Compare my actions to one of my fellow coaches Zach Nyborg.  After two years of coaching he took chances, he even applied to take over his old high school.  Though he didn't get the position Zach kept taking chances (unlike me) and was able to get a student assistant position at Utah State University.  Now does this mean he is on the fast track to a college coaching career?  No it doesn't guarantee anything, but I am jealous of him because he has a real opportunity in front of him.

You might ask why I am writing this post?  Well one of the points of this blog is to help other coaches, even young coaches starting out to learn from my mistakes and avoid them.  If you want to coach you need to set out specific goals.  Where do you want to be in 5 years as a coach?  What level do you want to be coaching?  As for me writing this blog post is a way to now keep reminding myself that I need to take more chances not only as a coach but also in my daily life.