Close your capability gap

​I think Nick Saban, the Alabama college football coach, is one of the greatest coaches ever. I know that's an opinion, so I won't bother debating it. I only say it to add emphasis to the meaning I find in one of his simple coaching strategies.

Saban says he is always trying to close the capability gap with his staff and players.

Saban believes we wake up every day capable of doing certain things. A good day is 100% living up to those capabilities. Anything else leaves a capability gap.

Saban's passion is helping people close those gaps.

One of the knocks I often hear on Saban's coaching greatness is "well, he should win with all the talent he gets" - as if that talent just randomly wanders in off the street.

But even so, here's the thing I don't think people understand about coaching "all that talent." All that talent isn't waking up every day dreaming of playing college football for Nick Saban at Alabama. That talent is dreaming of the potential of making millions of dollars playing football for the Dallas Cowboys.

To understand the coaching difficulty that presents, I don't have to look any further than me. Some days, it's very difficult for me to sit down and write a morning article while I'm dreaming of the potential of writing a book.

Some days, it's hard to go out and run two miles through the dark and quiet neighborhood when I'm dreaming of the potential of crossing a marathon finish line in the crowded streets of Richmond.

Some days, dreaming of the potential of what we might one day do can be the greatest obstacle standing in the way of doing what we are already capable of doing this day.

Some days, doing what we are capable of seems so little compared to what we might potentially do one day down the road.

I love what Mark Batterson says. He says, "when we do little things like they are big things, God has a way of doing big things like they are little things."

I think that's how Saban sees it.

I don't know what his stance on God is, but he clearly believes when we do enough of the little things we're capable of doing - day in and day out - big things seem to appear out of the blue.

Only they didn't appear out of the blue - they were just the result of closing the capability gap.

Think about it. Write it down. What are you capable of doing today? What are little things you can do today like they are big stinkin deals?

Not what you WISH you could do today.

Not what you DREAM of doing tomorrow.

But, what CAN you do today?

It's Monday. Let's all close our capability gaps this week.

And who knows - something big might be waiting for us at the other end.....