Peter Vermes is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame and is the long time coach of Major League Soccer perennial powerhouse, Sporting Kansas City. Being a small market team has it’s challenges, but even with comparatively smaller salary dollars, Vermes is consistently able to put a squad on the field that is able to contend for the MLS Cup. So how does he do it? What is the secret to his ongoing success? One word.
Tenacity.
Vermes has taught his team that victory will come through relentless effort. Of course they take time to celebrate big goals, but soccer is a game that doesn’t stop. It keeps going. Victory is built off of a series of successive wins both on and off the field. For Vermes,
“The most important play in the game is always the next one.”
-Peter Vermes
This is a helpful perspective to take into any arena of life because it keeps you focused on going forward. As Vermes also says, “Looking back is wasted energy on my part.” Looking back on accomplishments for too long has the same effect as focusing on our failures, it blinds us to what’s next. Of course we should celebrate and learn from past victory and failures, but there is a time and place for those things to occur, after the game is over and as you are preparing for the next. Failure to keep this perspective can lead to our downfall.
Do you spend more time celebrating successes of the past, or working towards a win in the future? What is one thing you can do today to increase your tenacity as you march towards victory?
