Zen and the Art of Paintball

“Good, better, best. Never let it rest. ‘Til your good is better and your better is best.” – St. Jerome

How many of you wake up every day with a positive attitude? How many of you get out of bed and think to yourself, “Today, I am going to be better than I was the day before.”?

I recognize that not everyone does this. But I am a firm believer that if more of us did, the world, especially the paintball world, would be a much better place. Positive thinking will always lead you to improvement much quicker than negative thinking. I am not ignorant enough to think that negativity won’t rear its ugly head in the most positive of people. Of course it will. But improvement has to start by recognizing you CAN do better and you have to recognize that it has to START somewhere. For instance, if you think you can improve your paintball playing, you’re probably right. If you think you suck and will never improve, well, chances are you’re right about that too.

So is this blog post going to be about the power of positive thinking? Maybe. Maybe not. I’m making this up as I go really but inspiration always strikes somewhere, yeah? I had the distinct priviledge of being asked to commentate this past weekend for a paintball webcast alongside a good friend of mine. I remember thinking, just do your best, try not to be repetitive (I was), silly (I was), or sound dumb (I did a few times). Besides having to speak about the action on the field while interacting with my friend/cohost (both trying to be somewhat interesting), we also had people in the press box talking and yelling as well as had an earpiece in where we could hear the director (shout out to my new friend John from Almost Famous Media) and occasionally a 30 second delay of our own voices. It was tough so hats off to the guys who do this on the reg. When the weekend was over and the last hand was shook, I realized a few things on the drive back home. One, I had a blast and want to do it again. Two, being johnny on the spot while trying to speak effectively and keep it interesting is not very easy. And three, If given another chance, I want to do better… and that got me thinking. What would that mean and what could that mean for others, especially paintball players/teams? So I came up with this:

B– Belief

E– Enthusiasm

T– Training

T– Teamwork

E– Evaluation

R– Recognize

I have been around some successful people in life. And they all seem to have something in common. These successful people are predominantly optimistic. They all took what life threw at them and turned it into something that was good. They chose to learn from adversity as oppose to being a victim. They each took action; they set a goal and went for it. They realized that success is achieved through a few simple behaviors that they repeated daily. But most importantly, they believed in themselves. So as a player or as a team, you have to believe you have what it takes. I heard recently that you can maintain the status quo or you can take a risk. You can be courageous or safe but you can’t have both. So believe in yourself, your team, as it is this belief that will start it all off.

“Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin

I can’t remember if it was my mother or my father who told me that, if I didn’t expect great things to happen in my life, I would never recognize them when they did. It is easy to get bogged down. The pursuit of improvement can be tiring. You need to maintain that enthusiasm and realize your greatest moments as a player or as a team are ahead of you. If you’re going to play paintball, play paintball to have fun, play to win…

Any action is often better than no action. You have to actively get up, drive to the field, and play. If you wish to improve, it you wish to do better in the true sense, you have to practice. In other words, you have to train to get better. If you don’t feel you are improving, are you really putting in the work? Are you focusing on the right aspects of your or your teams’ game? When you make a mistake in practice or someone offers constructive criticism, do you learn something? If you do, guess what? It’s no longer a mistake.  It was a step in the right direction, a step towards being better.

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett

It doesn’t happen overnight. You have to take baby steps. But you have to trust in the process, you have to trust in each other, you have to be a team. Be humble as you execute but visionary and gigantic in terms of your aspirations. In paintball, it doesn’t have to be about VAST improvement. It needs to simply be improvement each time we step out. 0.01% gain is still a gain and it adds up. How many times have we talked about the 0.01% gain? An improvement is an improvement. Any step in the right direction is positive.  Being a team is about TRUST.  Trusting each other and being on the same page.  It isn’t easy but when you find the right crew, the right mix, and everyone is rowing in the right direction, good things almost always happen.

Every once in a while you need to stop and recognize where you were, where you are, and where you are going. Take the time to evaluate everyone’s progress. Who is struggling, who is excelling, and why. Don’t be harsh but be real. Don’t sugarcoat, be honest, but truly understand strengths and weaknesses.

Then recognize it all for what it is. Speak truth to power. Have no fear. Do what is necessary but do it with integrity.

What are some words you would use for the acronym?

Post up in the comments and let me know.

Be water my friends,

Zen