Embrace Your Title – You Are An Industrial Athlete

By definition, an athlete is someone one who is trained and skilled at a sport or exercise and is in competition for a prize. Likewise, your work requires training and skill and your prize is a paycheck or a promotion. You are an industrial athlete…do you see it that way?

Qualities Of A Great Athlete

Consider the following qualities:

1. Confidence – you work & prepare for success
2. Teachable Spirit – your desire to learn and improve, every day.
3. Pride – a sense of self-worth obtained by what you and your team have accomplished.
4. Accountability – the process of earning trust through your actions.
5. Competitive Perseverance – the “mental toughness” which demands that you continue to strive & compels you to encourage your co-workers to continue striving, despite stress and bumps in the road.
6. Discipline – the strength of character to overcome temptations and pressures; this is the quality that gives a successful athlete an “edge” and sets them apart.
7. Team First – you intentionally put the needs of the team before you own needs self. This is a rare quality that the individual realizes their inability to do perform without their team and their understanding their interdependence within the team.

(Adapted from, "Qualities of a Great Athlete", by Dr. Bruce Brown, NAIA)

Choose To Embrace Your Title – The Industrial Athlete

The common component of this list is that each quality involves a choice. In fact, we make many of these choices (and others) each and every day: whether or not to accept a job, how long or hard we will work to accomplish the goal, how we will prepare or not prepare for success, and so on. It’s a lifestyle, not just something you turn on and turn off. Do you recognize these qualities in yourself?

Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

1. Am I coming to work with a positive attitude or is work a necessary evil?
2. Do I think about how to be the best at what I do and/or how I can improve?
3. Can my co-workers count on me, rely on the work I do, and do I encourage my co-workers to the same standards through my example and words?
4. Do I keep myself health, physically prepared, and safe?

Interestingly, these same qualities that relate to an industrial athlete are similar to those we make as part of our "family unit". Chances are, if you are making these choices at work, you’re probably doing well at home and vice versus. Folks who are able to make these qualities work, tend to be holistically well balanced, meaning you are more likely to be a happy and productive person who values his or her work, the work of teammates, and finds fulfillment in what you do.

This is the first in a series of articles focusing on the Industrial Athlete – You! So, keep a look out for future editions.