What is our reality here in T&T? We need to take a long hard look at ourselves—what are our values? What are our strengths and weaknesses? And we have to be brutal with ourselves—honesty is what we require.
I say because I am certain we can do much better than we are currently doing in most areas of national life. There is too much mediocrity, failure and underperformance.
We make and accept excuses and have mastered the blame game. Nobody wants to accept responsibility for what is going wrong. Sport like everything else is no different.
What will it take for us to shake ourselves awake from our slumber? What is holding us back from having a positive attitude and a can do mentality? Why is it that we are so dependent on someone or something other than ourselves? Why are we still enslaved mentally and emotionally?
Self-belief is critical; there must be an expectation and an intention that success will be achieved. Trying to simply survive is a recipe for mediocrity.
It’s about believing that national sport organisations (NSOs) have the capacity to deliver and execute on their strategy. That they can put in place the structure and develop the culture that will drive excellence and the execution of the plan.
Take ownership of your destiny and purpose.
There are potholes and fears along the winding uphill road—many barriers and obstacles.
However getting the attitude right is more important than anything else. It’s the starting point.
But how do you cultivate that positive attitude?
How do you generate that drive for success and belief that it can be done? How many NSOs really believe they can achieve their goals?
Last week -post carnival there were a lot of discussions taking place on talk radio and social media on a number of issues surrounding carnival celebrations.
It was while taking in the varied views and opinions as to whether carnival was a success or not that my thoughts drifted to local sport and where it is compared to carnival.
It is woeful that we are unable to get a handle on carnival. We all have answers and opinions. But it is glaring that successive governments have been unable to really come up with a definitive policy position on carnival. It begs the question—has government’s involvement in carnival hinder and hamper its growth and development?
In considering the failure of carnival to move pass the annual ritual of bacchanal, there may very well be important clues and answers for sport.
If sport is to develop and grow to the point where it can collectively and individually fulfill its potential, it has to shake free of the shackles of government dependency.
Sport must cut loose and make a leap of faith. For whatever reasons government centred carnival has repeatedly failed and it will be no different for sport.
There are arguments for the heavy hand of government but in the absence of a policy and a clear understanding that government should be a facilitator not the controller, stuttering progress is made.
To move forward in a meaningful way, we need to define reality. Too many of us have a tendency to sugar coat things, but that does not help to improve things.
We need to create the context and the framework that will not only define reality but create hope that we can achieve success.
We need to understand that even if things are bad, they can get better. And even if things are good there is a lot of work to keep us going in the right direction
Brian Lewis is the Honorary Secretary General of the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee www.ttoc.org. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the TTOC.
Source: www.guardian.co.tt