The Journey of Joy

by Ryan Krzykowski

The current version of my Coaching Purpose Statement contains six key words: compete, joy, resilient, selfless, encouragers, and love.  When I was asked to take the lead in planning regular sessions with our team’s leadership group, the idea of using those six words as a guide for our discussions seemed like a winner.  Using John O’Sullivan’s The Champion Teammate as our text, it wasn’t hard to find a chapter that corresponded with each of the six key words.  So in week one, we had a fantastic conversation about showing up to win vs. showing up to compete — how a process vs. results based approach can make a huge difference in our daily habits and development as a group and as individuals.  For week two, our topic was joy.

With John’s book as our guide, we talked about how the Golden State Warriors have adopted joy as their primary core value, and we read the quote “there is no path to joy; joy is the path”.  We looked at the idea that joy is a “habit that can be developed through your daily thoughts, which then impact actions.  It’s a choice.”  That concept, that joy is a choice, was emphasized as a main takeaway point.  Then we talked about the reality that sometimes circumstances make it a challenge to experience joy, and how in those times our commitment to our core values is tested.  We asked each other, are we willing to commit to joy when it’s hard?  When we’re injured?  After a loss or multiple losses?  Can we lean on each other when joy is difficult to find for one of us?  For all of us?

John gives us this nugget near the end of the chapter: “Being a champion teammate means bringing the gift of joy to your team…all of us crave joy.”  Combined with our earlier takeaway, we ended up with this statement: Joy is a choice and a gift we can share with those around us.  Now it’s time to put it into action.  The first point on the “keys to the game” sheet that I just put together for our position group was this: “Have a blast – play with joy in your heart, in your mind, and on your face.”  I want to help them choose joy and share it with the rest of the group.

Let’s Coach With Purpose…