This past week was National Commitment Day, a day for high school seniors to announce where they would be attending college next year.

I was proud to share that my daughter Emily will be attending Xavier University and she will be a member of the Musketeer swim team.

We are hopeful that the students will be on campus, school will be in session, and that the swim season will go on, but there are no guarantees that these opportunities will exist for her in the fall.

She knows this and it presents her an incredible mental challenge as it relates to her training.

She has a few options to consider – to not train for a season that may not happen, to partially train for a season that may not happen, or to go all in full throttle with a rigorous training program for a season that may not happen.

Adding to this mental challenge is that she is unable to currently train in the water as no pools are open for business. 

Additionally, she is not allowed to conduct dry land training with others in person because of the social distancing guidelines that are in place.

She has her work cut out for her in maintaining her competitive mental mindset.

At this stage in the game in her life with her athletic career, she’s entirely on her own in terms of what effort she chooses to put forward in her training.  She’s 18, and is a recipient of an athletic and academic scholarship.

If she doesn’t keep up her grades up, and her swim times down, she could lose her scholarships (Athletic and Academic scholarships are four, one-year, renewable scholarships, not guaranteed four-year scholarships).

Thus far, she has continued her rigorous training program out of the water, in preparation for the season that may or may not exist.  In fact, she has started to develop shin splints from the large amount of pounding and impact that she is enduring from running, and jumping (swimmers are not as accustomed to extensive dry land exercises!).

I am extremely proud of her commitment, especially because she is driving the entire process on her own.

She has goals, and is choosing to put in the work to go for them.

The key takeaway for us in the business world, is that she is doing this at home, on her own, as she is socially distancing from others.

This is the exact same work at home scenario mental challenge for everyone who is in business and is working at home remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Everyone has choices to make regarding their career and working during the pandemic presents a wonderful opportunity for people to separate themselves in a positive light, with both internal and external customers.

People who are able to sustain an intense focus and a rigorous work ethic, have a wonderful opportunity to build their personal career brand, which will pay dividends in the future with advancement, compensation, and stability.

Business goes on infinitely.

Workers must continuously run, even when they are not in the physical presence of other workers.

The business world is unforgiving.

But it also can be extremely rewarding, especially for those who are willing to put in the time commitment necessary for success.

Your rewards will mostly be a function of the effort that you put in to your work, especially when others are not watching.

We can all learn from our children and Emily has led by example for me with her approach to her training – never let the guard down, constantly strive for accomplishment, and keep the mental focus in place even when the prospects for future rewards are uncertain.

#SCNrecruiting  #mentalgame  #hardwork  #commitment  #workingathome #MRINetwork