The Book of Luke

During college Luke Johnson was that guy on North Park that almost tanked Illinois at sectionals in 2008.  He was a stud, the best thrower in the region, and if he got hot North Park could follow.

My first club experience out of college was with Natives, a Luke Johnson run squad.  As I’ve expressed before, it was a very dark time for me, and the positives came out of playing with Natives was big for me in terms of staying with ultimate.  Luke Johnson was the guy that spun ultimate and put it in a light that made a black and blue image of ultimate appear white and gold.

I only have one thing that I learned from Luke.  I think this is fine, because it has had a profound impact on my life.  I talk about relentless positivity outside of ultimate, I use it during job interviews, and I use it with my family.  I am not going to dilute the impact relentless positivity has had on my life by including two other lesser value points.

1.       Relentless Positivity:

Luke’s formula for having fun is having fun = hard work + relentless positivity.  Prior to Luke I knew what hard work looked like, but I had always employed negativity and being mean as a way of “toughening up” my teammates or encouraging my teammates to “be a man”.  In my mind it was all about being hard and giving people a hard time until they toughened up.  The problem with ultimate is that everyone who plays ultimate was raised by liberal parents who never told them no as children, so the brand of motivation that revolves around “toughness” and “grit” doesn’t work on these people.  What works is relentless positivity.

Finding ways to shine a positive light keeps people together, it keeps their spirits up, and it keeps them bought in.  Casting negative lights depresses ultimate players, it makes them want to quit, it makes them less inclined to try.  Being relentlessly positive builds up the self-esteem, it improves their sense of self-value, and it’s a fantastic way to get the most out of them.

I remember using relentless positivity on the middle school girls’ basketball team that I was coaching.  Obviously they ate it up, they loved it, and it made them have more fun with the game.  Then I decided to bring it with me to ultimate, and it had a shockingly similar effect.  In summary, ultimate players are middle school girls.

On a more serious note, negative energy is a poison.  It is unproductive, evil, and nearly impossible to escape.  Bringing relentless positivity into your life is the lifehack for being able to stop and appreciate the roses.  People want to be built up, people want to see where things are going well, they want to see where they are improving, they want to know what  their impact is, using relentless positivity can help you as a leader show them the value in themselves.  Once they can see the value they bring, it’s then easier for them to focus on that and to maximize the impact of their positives.  It’s easier for them to take pride in their positives if they know what their positives are, and when everyone on your team has pride in what they do then you’ve become a dangerous team.