Athletes | NexGoal

Jake Pshock
Culture, Data & Trends, Job Search Tips
July 29, 2020

Setting Up An Effective Remote Workspace

Are you one of the many individuals drastically impacted by COVID-19 and all its complications? According to SHRM’s COVID-19 Business Index, 64% of U.S. employees are currently working remotely. With the massive shift to the virtual working world, it’s not easy to maintain productivity and passion for your work.

Are you struggling to maintain focus throughout your workdays? Although being forced to work from home was beyond your control, there are still elements you CAN control for a productive workday.

Clear the Clutter

First and foremost, identify your needs. Sort through your essentials and remove the unnecessary items, papers, or trash. If possible, now is the time to move on from the kitchen table or living room coffee table. Do you have room for a desk area containing your computer, monitors, and notepads? If you are a part of the 41% of Americans wishing to return to the office, explore the option of recreating your workspace. Find a time to retrieve elements from your in-office setup, i.e., your monitor, decor, chair, or even desk.

Additionally, your organizational capabilities are not limited to your physical surroundings, but the data on your computer as well. Chances are, many of the folders and documents saved to your desktop can be removed. You can designate time to rid yourself of your ‘digital trash’ and create more space on your computer.

Create a Schedule and Stick to It

Identify your biggest hurdles and set a game plan to overcome them. When possible, maintain your regular business hours, set your alarm and get up early. This medium is your best shot at staying productive while maintaining a work-life balance. Working remotely is not an excuse for allowing your level of communication to dip. Clear, honest, and consistent communication within your team and company is critical to staying productive. For example, if your team held weekly meetings every Tuesday and Thursday at 9:00 a.m., emphasize getting them back up and running.

For an example of what it looks like to map out an entire day in advance, check out this article from The Muse’s Susie Moore, who has over six years of work-from-home experience.

“Our estimate is that 25-30% of the workforce will be working-from-home multiple days a week by the end of 2021.” -Kate Lister, President of Global Workplace Analytics

Block out the Distractions

Establish boundaries sooner rather than later. While it is encouraged to create time for coffee or lunch hangouts, it needs to dissolve at just that. Make it clear to your friends and family that despite being at home, you are at work. However, don’t allow your workload to push you into the evening too often. After your shift, be sure to dedicate time to see them elsewhere. Skipping out too many times can result in feelings of career burnout and ‘bottled up’ thoughts.

If you know yourself to be easily distracted by phone applications such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, or ESPN, shut off these notifications on your phone during the workday.

High-Speed Internet

Are you content with the speed and efficiency of your internet connection? Are you the only one using it during the workday? No matter what your role may be, a speedy and stable connection is critical to staying productive and efficient in your daily routine. If you are sharing usage with a roommate or your spouse/children and have experienced moments of lagging, it may be time for an upgrade. If you are required to work from home and feel your broadband connection is lackluster, reach out to your manager/boss to help accommodate. After all, your employer wants to set you up with the best chance to perform your best and remain efficient.

Self-Care

When taking care of your mind and body, it is crucial to dedicate time to physical and mental exercises. Step outside, stay limber and give your mind a break during the workday. For myself, this looks like dedicating a block of time to morning stretches and light, in-home workouts. Are you taking advantage of your employer’s resources to combat mental stress or fatigue? If you have not received any, reach out to a superior to make this happen.

Further, finding a new hobby or developing a new skill can help fill the gaps in your daily routine before COVID-19. Courtesy of the Miami Herald, here are some of the most popular across the country: Reading, online games, sewing, crocheting, puzzles, card games, instruments, DIY projects, and at-home workouts.

Another great way to give your mind a break is to make plans outside your home for lunch. Whether it is alone, with a loved one, or catching up with a friend, eating lunch away from the desk can renew your energy and creativity after the busy morning. If you are unable to find the time and location to meet up, utilize video chatting services such as Zoom, FaceTime, or Facebook Messenger.

Wrap Up

Setting yourself up for success in your ‘home office’ begins with intentionality. Remove the non-essentials from your workspace and follow a consistent schedule. Establishing boundaries with your friends and family is vital, but setting blocks of time to ‘check-in’ is critical to your mental health. Courtesy of a recent global study by Qualtrics, over 40% of employees said their mental health has declined since the COVID-19 outbreak began. For more great tips and resources to alleviate stress/anxiety and improve your overall well-being, click here.

Remote Working Statistics

“56% of the U.S. workforce holds a job that is compatible (at least partially) with remote work.” (Global Workplace Analytics)
“Before the crisis, surveys repeatedly showed that 80% of employees want to work from home at least some of the time.” (Global Workplace Analytics)
“Work-at-home will save U.S. employers over $30 Billion a day in what would have otherwise been lost productivity during office closures due to COVID-19” (Global Workplace Analytics)
“88% of organizations have encouraged or required their employees to work from home”.” (Gartner, Coronavirus in Mind: Make Remote Work Successful)

Before You Go
View Current Job Openings
Follow NexGoal on Twitter
“Like” NexGoal on Facebook
Connect with NexGoal on LinkedIn

Staff
Job Search Tips
November 26, 2018

Emotional Intelligence: The Key to Athletic and Business Success

A while back, NexGoal asked a simple question over our social media channels: What traits acquired from your athletic career have or will help you in your professional career? The most common answers were persistence, determination, time management, and teamwork. However, one of the most interesting answers we consistently saw through our various channels was the idea of emotional intelligence. Defined, emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, and those of the people around you. EI is a term that has been around for a while but hasn’t always been associated with sports. Four-time Olympian Bo Hanson describes EI in sports as such,

“For years we have marveled at how the great athletes are able to “switch themselves on” to create amazing performances with incredible consistency. We would describe them as being composed, mentally tough, having the right psychology, a great sports mind, emotionally controlled or simply determined or focused. Today we recognize these athletes as having high levels of competency in the area of emotional intelligence.”

Perfecting the mental side of an athlete’s game starts with a thorough understanding of EI. With high EI, traits like persistence, determination, and teamwork become easier to display because the athlete has full control of their emotions and is able to turn those emotions into positive behavior.

So how does the emotional intelligence that you learned in sports transfer to a career outside of sports in the business world? To better understand how, we need to look at the components of EI. According to Daniel Goleman, an American psychologist who helped to popularize EI, there are five main components of emotional intelligence:

Self-awareness
Self-regulation
Motivation
Empathy
Social skills

In the following sections I will describe how the 5 components of EI make a difference for an athlete and how an athlete can translate those components to the business world.

Self-Awareness:

Self-Awareness is the ability of one to understand his or her strengths and weaknesses as well as recognize their emotional state. In sports, self-awareness is essential for success. Coaches always talk about playing within yourself, which essentially means playing to your strengths. To be able to do this an athlete needs to be aware of what they’re good at and recognize their role. By recognizing and accepting their role, an athlete is able to better contribute to a team and allow for another player to pick them up in their weaker areas. The concept of roles also applies in the business world. You should be aware of your role in a company and stick within that role. That doesn’t mean you can’t improve on your weaker areas, but it does mean that you should be the very best in the role you’re assigned. By being the best in your assigned role, you become a valuable asset to your company and put yourself in good position for success.

Recognizing your emotional state in the midst of competition is perhaps one of the hardest things to master in sports. Losing control of emotion can be catastrophic in the heat of competition as it can affect individual and team performance, as well as team morale. That is why it is important in competition to be aware of your feelings quickly. Playing with emotion is fine, but it has to be controlled. Some coaches refer to this as playing on the edge but not over it. Much is the same in the business world. Emotion can be a great motivator in company culture if it is positive. However, negative emotion can be extremely hurtful to employee morale and company culture. If an employee is constantly scared that they might get berated for not doing their job, they will be more cautious in their work which can lead to stagnant creativity as well a high turnover rate for the company. By learning to recognize your emotional state, you can begin to decide when it is appropriate to display certain emotions to get the most out of co-workers or employees.

Self-Regulation:

Once you are able to recognize your emotional states effectively, you have to be able to regulate those same emotions. As Hanson described, in athletics this is the ability of the athlete to stay composed and mentally tough no matter the circumstances. The ups and downs of competition cannot get to an athlete. They need to maintain an equilibrium of emotions that balances both highs and lows if they hope to develop consistency in their craft. This means not dwelling on both failures and successes. What’s important is what you do next. Your emotional state also rubs off on teammates which make your regulation of emotions even more important as it can affect the overall team’s performance.

This same mindset should be carried over into the working world. “Being able to stay composed and have the confidence to talk to high level executives and make presentations is essential to the success of any person in business, especially to those in sales,” says CEO of NexGoal and former NHL player Kevin Dahl. Just like in athletics, the moment should never be too big for you in the corporate world. It is essential to keep your composure in the most high pressure situations. By regulating your emotions, you can keep calm and focus on the task that needs to be accomplished.

Motivation:

If an athlete wants to be the best at their sport, they need to be able to motivate themselves. Self-motivation in sports involves persistence, determination, and focus. An athlete who can motivate himself or herself has clear goals that they want to achieve and will find any means necessary to overcome obstacles that stand in their way to meet these goals. It is their hope that while they drive to meet their goals, their teammates will recognize their efforts and follow their lead. The most motivated athlete is often the best athlete because their passion for their sport will not let them quit and force them to get better.

In the business world, these same traits of motivation can lead you and your company to the top. Setting clear goals for yourself or your company is essential to motivation. To be successful in the business world you need to know where you want to be and then have a plan to get there. Motivation is what will drive you to carry out your plan and allow you to reach your next goal! When looking at how to motivate yourself and others you have to ask yourself if you’re passionate about your job. Passion and dedication are key drivers of motivation and if neither exists, perhaps it’s time to explore a new career. Once you find your passion, it’s just a matter of keeping your eye on the prize and continually finding ways to meet the goals you have set for yourself and others.

Empathy:

An athlete is not always at the top of their game. All athletes have days where things just aren’t clicking. It is important for an athlete to understand this so that they are better able to show empathy to their teammates when they are struggling. To show empathy is to actually put themselves in the shoes of their teammate. A good teammate is one that has a complete understanding of each of his or her teammate’s personalities and is able to quickly diagnose the root of what is causing their poor play. It is then up to the athlete to pick up their teammate and find a solution so that the team can thrive.

Having the ability empathize in the working world is equally important as it is in athletics. You are not always going to be able to make everyone happy or achieve complete motivation no matter how hard you try. However, you do have the ability to understand why a person may not be happy or motivated by empathizing. Two of the best ways to effectively empathize with someone are active listening and reading body language. Active listening involves providing feedback to the speaker when they are speaking to you. By engaging the speaker with feedback, they are more likely to feel that you care about their problem which can lead to more openness and cooperation. Reading body language is also essential because a co-worker or employee might say one thing but their body language could very well be saying something different. By recognizing different intricacies of body language, you will be able to tell what a person’s emotional state really is and adjust how you speak with them so that you can better use empathy.

Social Skills:

Having good social skills is one of the most important traits an athlete possesses as a teammate. Social skills in an athlete are really a culmination of the first four aspects of EI. To possess effective social skills an athlete must be aware of their emotions and be able to regulate those emotions. An athlete must also be able to motivate his teammates through communication as well empathize when a teammate isn’t playing to their full potential. If an athlete has perfected the first four EI concepts, then they are well on their way of being a master in social skills.

Possessing good social skills in the business world also involves mastering the first four aspects of EI. Communication in the working world is key because saying or typing the wrong thing can have dire consequences. Self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, and empathy all play a role in helping avoid such costly mistakes. Social skills are also important to have when you are trying to convey an idea or persuade someone. Both situations involve strong interpersonal or presentation skills and also a complete understanding of your audience. Having an understanding for your audience is very similar to understanding your teammates. You have to realize each person is different and you should prepare to communicate with them as unique individuals.

Summary:

EI in athletics and the business world go hand in hand. The EI you learned playing a sport can be easily translated to your working profession. Go back and think what made you a good athlete and teammate, and take those same traits and use them in your career. More likely than not, the EI experience you gained in sports will put you far ahead of the competition in the business world.

Before You Go

View Current Job Openings
Follow NexGoal on Twitter
“Like” NexGoal on Facebook
Connect with NexGoal on LinkedIn

Bob Evans
Interviews, Job Search Tips
March 24, 2016

3 Ways Athletes Can Land a Job in Less Than Two Minutes

Last year, Forbes released an article which provided invaluable insight into the minds of hiring managers. As athletes seeking jobs or fine-tuning your interview processes for the next time you are looking for a job, this article should be bookmarked as a reminder every single time you are doing interview prep.

One of the most staggering statistics from the article stated, “While the average interview lasts roughly 40 minutes, 33% of hiring managers admit they know within 90 seconds if you’re the person they want to hire.”

Take a second (hopefully not 90 of them) to let that sink in. Despite the fact you spend 40 minutes on a first interview, probably another 40 on a second interview and another 30 on a third interview, that hiring manager likely knew whether they were going to hire you or not before you said more than “Hi, my name is…thanks for taking the time to meet with me today.”

For an athlete, the outcome of something being determined before the game even starts is likely puzzling—but it makes a lot of sense when you continue reading the article. The author of the original Forbes article identified key aspects of the pre-interview process that are part of their decision in that first 90 seconds, and since we here at NexGoal always have the athlete in mind—we have broken down three of those key aspects a little more for you.

Know Your Audience When You Dress for Success

When is Dressing for Success too much?

From the first moment you started thinking about getting a job, someone probably uttered the phrase, “Dress for Success” to you at least 100 times. Dressing for success has always unofficially been tied to business apparel (suit, tie, dress pants, dress shoes, dress, etc.) for men and women interviewing for jobs. And while we will never tell you to not look your best for an interview, sometimes you can be over the top.

As the Forbes article stated, “…overdoing your apparel can come off as trying too hard. In fact, it can actually make you seem insecure – as if you need that fresh off the runway outfit to compensate for something.” Another part of the article continued, “A staggering 70% of hiring managers said they gave candidates the mental axe for being too trendy.”

I know what you are wondering right now, and I am right there with you—how can someone be penalized for looking professional on an interview? Furthermore, what can you do to make sure you do not “get the axe” for looking too good?

The main suggestion I have is do research to see what their team is wearing before you go in. As an athlete, you already know what it is like to dress like the team does. If your teams were anything like ours in high school, that meant dress pants, dress shirt and a tie on gamedays, followed obviously by wearing your uniform for the game. You would not have shown up in a tuxedo on gameday to look different than your team, so you should take that approach now.

If you do not believe the overdressing for an interview myth to be true—I can attest to it.

At a job in the past I wore a full business suit to the interview and walked into a room with two interviewers who were in jeans and button up shirts. When I met with the Executive VP of the company a few moments later, she jokingly stated, “This will be the last time you wear a suit jacket in my building.” Luckily for me, it became a running joke and not a deterrent from getting the job.

Study Your Future Team Like You Would an Opponent

Remember the grueling hours you spent studying film and learning the tendencies of your opponents all those years? Well, it is time to change it up and learn everything you possibly can about your potential future teammates.

According to Forbes, “47% of hiring managers count it against candidates if they don’t show that they did some kind of company research.”

This is not something you have to worry about though, right? As an athlete you know it is important to do research prior to the big game—so at a bare minimum you Googled the company name, read about their business and looked at their Team Member page to learn more. If you have not yet done this, you better do it immediately after you are done reading this article.

“Three for Thursday” Featured Jobs From Our Clients to Start Your Weekend
Sales Representative (Facility Services) – North Canton, OH – Click to Find Out More
Commercial Roofing Sales Associate – Spokane, WA – View This Opportunity
Sales Representative (Facility Services) – Strongsville, OH – Learn More Here

However, your “Company Film Study” does not stop there. Search reviews of the company online to learn what people liked and disliked about working there. Do not let the reviews ultimately shape your view of the company, but find out what others thought about the company. Their good points and bad points are excellent questions for your interview. Glassdoor usually has some pretty good reviews, I suggest starting there.

Finally, take all of this research you have done and formulate pre-written questions to ask during your interview. Being able to ask a hiring manager about the good and the bad of the company shows you care about something more than just the usual “how much will I make and how quickly can I move up” questions they usually receive.

Do Not Forget to Show Hiring Managers Your Confidence

We have all been there before. You are mentally prepared for the big moment, inside your head everything is being done correctly—but the on field product is completely different than your preparation leaving you to wonder, where did things go wrong?

Having all of the mental confidence in the world is great, but if you do not execute that confidence in front of the hiring manager—you will be held back from winning the game. According to Forbes, “38% of hiring managers counted people out of the running that didn’t smile or show any confidence.”

So what does this mean for you as an athlete-candidate for a job? Show them that you are prepared!

From the moment you walk into that interview, smile, make eye-contact and let them know that you are here to win the interview. Okay, do not actually tell them you are there to win the interview—but you understand what I am saying, your non-verbal presentation is just as important as your physical presentation and verbal presentation.

Hiring managers are not looking for the candidate that comes in with questionable confidence. They want the person who comes in and shows they are prepared for the big moment and is not going to shy away from it. You know this moment, you have conquered it thousands of time on the practice field and in games—so do it again at your next job interview.

Before You Go

View Current Job Openings
Follow NexGoal on Twitter
“Like” NexGoal on Facebook
Connect with NexGoal on LinkedIn

Staff
Culture, Job Search Tips, Leadership
March 15, 2016

NCAA Tournament Lessons: How to Ruin Your Team

A quick look at USA TODAY Sports’ 2015-16 Preseason College Basketball All-American Team shows that every player from first team through third team will be competing in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Well, that is everyone except Louisiana State University star, Ben Simmons.

Embed from Getty Images

It seems like common sense that the very best players in the nation would all be competing in the game’s top tournament at the end of the season. At the college level an individual star is often all a team needs to make the dance (i.e. Steph Curry and Adam Morrison).

Simmons certainly fits the profile of an individual star. In his freshman season, Simmons averaged 19.2 points, 11.8 rebounds and 4.8 assists per-game. He has been compared to Cleveland Cavaliers and NBA Superstar, LeBron James and it is widely believed he will be the first pick in the 2016 NBA Draft.

Hot Read: Need Some Motivation for Your Week? Check Out These 5 NCAA Motivational Quotes

Yet here we are a few days before tournament play, and Simmons and LSU are on the outside looking in. How is it that arguably the best player in college basketball isn’t in the tournament? Simply put, LSU just wasn’t a good team.

Simmons had very little support from his teammates this year. In fact, Simmons led the Tigers in almost every major statistical category. He was their best scorer, rebounder, passer, blocker and stealer. Yes, Simmons is a great player but even great basketball players can’t be expected to win when they are forced to shoulder the entire load.

Another former LSU star and great example of how individual performance does not necessarily define team success, “Pistol” Pete Maravich, to this day holds the record for points in a career at 3,667 (all without a three-point line). In one season he averaged 44.5 points per-game. However in three seasons, not one of Maravich’s teams made the NCAA tournament.

Embed from Getty Images

In both Simmons’ and Maravich’s cases, they were two great players who took it upon themselves to become one-man teams. While this sort of attitude for both players was probably brought out of a necessity to make up for the lack of talent surrounding them, it certainly is not a recipe for team success.

As the saying goes, a team is only as good as the sum of its parts. Great teams are those whose parts understand their roles and are able to see how their role plays into the big picture. This concept is equally important in the sports and business world.

Looking to Join a New Team? Click Here to View Our Client’s Latest Job Openings

How to Make Sure Your Team Doesn’t Fail

To get all parts working toward a common goal takes leadership and a vision. A strong leader can influence both culture and expectation. A leader should be able to look at all the parts of his team and see a realistic goal. Whether the goal is to hit a certain sales number or a certain number of wins, a vision for what needs to happen should be created.

In college basketball, we see this all the time with elite programs like Kentucky and Duke. Every player enters those respective programs expecting to win a championship. That expectation has been created after years of proven success by both the previous players and their coaches (John Calipari for Kentucky and Mike Krzyzewski for Duke). Without that kind of successful precedent it can be hard to convince a team to buy into a championship.

Success doesn’t have to be defined by a championship or profit margins. Success can simply mean improving upon a previous result. The point is having the entire team work toward this defined success point which can only happen after an expectation and vision has been set.

Once expectations are set, how is it then that teams meet them? The answer can be found in assigning roles.

Chances are “Joe from accounting” isn’t going to handle marketing, HR and supply chain along with his accounting duties for a Fortune 500 company. Even if he was the best worker on the planet who wanted to handle all of these areas, it is reasonable to expect overall business production would suffer because of time and the inevitable drop in quality of the work he produced.

Want to Learn More About NexGoal’s Athlete-Candidate Placement? Click Here

It is best for the sake of the team that Joe sticks to his accounting duties. If he clearly understands his role and its purpose in the company’s overall vision, he can put all of his valuable time into improving in that capacity. Multiply that same logic across every employee and you have a cohesive team clear on their roles and how those roles play into team success.

This is where LSU has failed in both Simmons’ and Maravich’s cases. Both players were asked to handle the roles of an entire team. Their respective coaches should have focused more on fitting the two stars into roles for the team’s overall vision instead of making them the center of that vision.

The moral of the story is, it doesn’t matter whether it is your business or an NCAA basketball team, teams need strong leadership that sets clear visions and roles. Without doing this, teams can expect to come up short of success and miss the big dance.

Before You Go

View Current Job Openings
Follow NexGoal on Twitter
“Like” NexGoal on Facebook
Connect with NexGoal on LinkedIn

Staff
Job Search Tips
March 9, 2016

Robert Griffin III Can Write Ultimate Redemption Story

Let’s play a game of quarterback A vs quarterback B. In this comparison, we will be comparing their statistics in their rookie seasons. In his rookie season, QB A passed for 3,200 yards and 20 touchdowns with just five interceptions. His QB rating was 102.4, and he also rushed for 815 yards and seven touchdowns.

In his rookie season, QB B threw for 3,118 yards and 26 touchdowns with 10 interceptions. His QB rating was 100.0, and he rushed for 489 yards and four touchdowns.

By all comparisons, these two players began their careers with very similar statistics. Both were effective passers in their rookie campaign and both were also dangerous on the ground. As rookie seasons go, this is ideally what teams want to see as both players contributed immediately while showing immense potential for the future.

Now, what if I told you both QBs were taken in the same draft? Most would assume that these two QBs both had to be early first round picks. In actuality, QB A was the 2nd pick and QB B was the 75th. QB A was a Heisman Trophy winner with ideal size and off the chart measurables. QB B was an undersized senior transfer who many had written off as a career backup.

Featured: Start your own Job Redemption story now, join our Athlete-Candidate Database

Do you know yet who I’m comparing? For the few of you who may not know, here’s my last hint. In his first four seasons, QB B has made the playoffs in all of them, been to two Super Bowls and won one. He is also a three-time Pro Bowler. In four seasons, QB A has yet to win a playoff game, has only made one Pro Bowl (in his rookie season) and was just cut by his team.

Know now? QB A is former Redskins QB, Robert Griffin III. QB B is Seahawks QB, Russell Wilson. It seemed like (during their rookie season) their two careers would follow the same trajectory, but everything changed after 2012. To be exact, everything changed after the two QBs faced off in the 2012 NFC Wild Card game.

Embed from Getty Images

In what could be compared to a movie-like plot, Griffin would seriously injure his knee in the Wild Card game and has since been unable to recover his former self. Wilson, on the other hand, has blossomed into one of the best QBs in the game since the Wild Card game. The mighty Heisman winner, who had achieved success with ease, is now in the shadow of the gritty overachiever.

In this movie plot some might see the story as David vs. Goliath.

Everyone loves an underdog story and Wilson represents the perfect David. Wilson has surpassed every expectation and silenced all doubters while completely eclipsing the giant that was Griffin. According to this plot, the story is officially over and David has officially won.

While this kind of ending might satisfy many viewers, I see a potentially more powerful ending. Redemption.

Seeing an athlete fall from grace and recover to regain success is a story that we all take to heart. It’s a story that we experience every time we fail in our personal lives and in our careers, and have to go pick up the pieces to fight again. There’s a real emotional bond to a good redemption story for both those involved and those viewing it.

Embed from Getty Images

Griffin has the perfect opportunity to write the ending to this redemption story. What Griffin has to figure out now is how to overcome adversity with confidence. The root of all of his problems began with his knee injury. While he made a remarkable recovery from the injury, his play has yet to recover. He plays with hesitation and seems worried about getting hurt or making a mistake rather than making plays.

Griffin needs to completely forget the misfortunes of his past. What’s done is done. There is no changing the past. What can be changed is the approach he takes at his next opportunity. Griffin is well aware of what it feels like to achieve success at the highest level of play in the NFL. He needs to remember that mindset he had in his rookie season and let it take him back to a place of confidence.

What Griffin is currently experiencing is his Wilson moment. Everyone doubts him. Few believe he can carve out a successful career in the NFL–this needs this to be his motivation. Expectations can only be defined by the individual, not by others.

Griffin should set his expectations high. He knows he can achieve success. Knowing this is half the battle, and the other half is hard work and execution. Results will not come as easily in his next opportunity. Like Wilson, every day he will have to prove his case. However, that chip on his shoulder has the ability to take Griffin from irrelevant to great.

In a plot twist where Wilson now has it all and Griffin has nothing, Griffin has a chance to embrace his current situation as the underdog and orchestrate the ultimate NFL redemption story. Will this be the end to a David vs. Goliath story or will Goliath rise from the ashes to fight again? As lead writer, only Griffin can construct this stories ending.

Before You Go

View Current Job Openings
Follow NexGoal on Twitter
“Like” NexGoal on Facebook
Connect with NexGoal on LinkedIn