After seeing the power shift from USC to UCLA in the LA college football landscape this past weekend, there’s a lot we can learn from that to help us get out of a long slump. USC was dominant for pretty much a decade but now things have changed and that’s natural. I’m sure in the future, it will shift back to USC, but for now, let’s see what was responsible for getting out of that long slump and how we can apply it in our lives.
Probably one of the biggest reasons responsible was a culture change to one of blue collar type hard work, toughness, and discipline by new UCLA coach Jim Mora. I think in this society, in this day and age, that kind of mentality is severely underrated. I think technology has made things so easy for us that we don’t get a chance to develop these traits anymore. We don’t hunt our food anymore. We don’t go out and seek it out. We don’t have any sort of “farm” type work to do anymore. Everything’s easy. Want something? Just step inside a metal box and push a pedal until you get to a store and then hand over a little plastic card or green slips of paper to get what you want. Or if you don’t even want to go through that hassle, go online, press your finger a couple of times and voila – in a couple of days (or overnight), it’s going to be on your doorstep.
Crazy, easy times we live in nowadays where we don’t get a chance out of necessity to develop hard work ethic. It’s up to us to do it ourselves and chances are, if you’ve been in a long slump, this ingredient was probably lacking consistently. Get that going again and you’ll be able to kick things into higher gear. Nothing like good old fashioned hard work to not only get out of a slump, but to feel good too.
Coach Mora’s practices were tough and fast. No more slacking off. He also took the team to another camp during the fall, away from their familiar environment in 100+ degree weather so they could tough it out and bond together. And he got rid of the “over the wall” tradition where seniors would skip a day of practice for a bowl game. If anybody went over the wall, coach says keep on going. You’re never coming back.
The second thing to help get you out of a long slump is a good consistent routine. A big reason why we get into slumps is nothing great is ever built. Everything is all over the place. No foundation was ever made. Getting into a good consistent routine helps with that. You don’t get too phased by the highs or the lows. You’re just doing your thing. For UCLA, practice and trips to away games were all consistent. This helps keep the focus on you, on getting better, on doing the best you can, rather than get distracted by what’s going on out there. One game at a time and a 24 hour mourning/celebration after a game and then back to business. Focus on the present. No looking ahead. These were the rules that helped build consistency and helped the team get better and better and these kinds of ideas will surely help get you out of a slump as well.
The third thing that helps is to avoid the urge to “turtle up” when life hits you with something big. This is one of the reasons why we get into a long slump because we get hit with something and then we just cover up and don’t do anything. We just hope things will go away.
Keep on attacking when you get hit with something, ESPECIALLY when you get hit with something. If you look at boxing, sports, or any other arena, when a person gets punched literally or figuratively, the average person turtles up. They play not to lose. They try to play it safe. And they lose.
UCLA had the ball and was up by 3 with about 7 minutes left in the game and they could’ve tried to milk the clock, run up the middle, play it safe, punt, get field position, and hope USC doesn’t score, but instead, UCLA came out swinging, throwing big passes, and eventually scored a touchdown, effectively sealing the game.
That was a huge change in mentality because in previous years, UCLA would definitely have played it safe and would have probably lost the game.
When you’re down, it’s easy to stay down because it requires so much energy to get back up, but if you get hit and stagger a bit, and start hitting back, it stops you from that inactivity that comes from staying down and pretty much guarantees a long slump.
All these things, plus a lot more that we didn’t cover, can definitely help get you out of a long slump.
Always be on the lookout for examples of success to draw from. It’s all the same. It really is. What works in one area will work in another. You’ll see the patterns. Start seeing how you can incorporate them into your life.
Success breeds success and I’m sure that many high school recruits who watched that game will be thinking about UCLA a lot more, thereby probably giving UCLA a lot more talented recruits to help continue their success.
Good old fashioned hard work, toughness, discipline, consistent routine, staying present, the mentality to keep on attacking when you’re hit – just some of the key points to remember and implement to help get you out of a long slump.
