All posts tagged Goal:
I had just finished the first of two personal development sessions that I was leading, Scoring Your DREAM Goal, with a group of participating teams at the 6th Homeless World Cup tournament in early December 2008 in Melbourne Australia. The cacophony of the team’s voices and the diversity of the languages being spoken at the break of the session reverberated beautifully throughout the lecture space that unquestionably qualifies as a “design marvel”– the BMW Edge Center at Federation Square.
Amid the din of the excited voices of the players still getting familiar with their surroundings in-the-land-downundah, I was having a conversation with Kat Byles, Media Director for the HWC about the next session. A man approached me and greeted me with a broad confident smile, “Hello, I’m Alex!” I politely said hello back to him and then he said his greeting once more to be certain that I heard him correctly, “Hello, I’m Alex!” As I studied him closely, I realized that he looked quite familiar to me but, I couldn’t figure out how I knew him – each year at the HWC there are over 500 players present and it’s easy to not recognize a face.
He must have noticed my effort to place his name and face so, he provided me with some very clear context when he asked, “Have you seen the film Kicking It?” I have seen the documentary, Kicking It, dozens of times and I’m quite familiar with how it chronicles the journey of five aspiring soccer hopefuls from around the globe, each facing disparate situations such as, kicking a drug addiction, surviving in a war-torn nation, facing abject poverty or dealing with abandonment. Each of them shares their story of how they hope to score the chance to make-the-cut and wear their nation’s uniform/kit at the 3rd annual Homeless World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa. Just like one of those TV crime scene investigation programs…I quickly pieced together how I knew this man standing proudly in front of me. I exclaimed, “you’re Alex from Kenya!” He beamed and nodded his head affirming my response.
Continue reading A WDH? story...enjoy!
The Melbourne, Australia edition of the Homeless World Cup is in full affect. The HWC website had a very nice post and video stream about a workshop that I conducted for the players in this year’s games. Have a look and follow this link to get the full story:
Scoring goals on and off the field
Posted on 02/12/2008
By Tim Beissmann
‘Goal’ was certainly the buzz word during the opening day of the 2008 Homeless World Cup.
On the pitches, the players slammed miraculous strikes into the back of the net, making a perfect start in their pursuit of the week’s top prize.
But the most important goals were those shared by the players at the Scoring Your Dream Goal workshops run by motivational speaker Kevin Carroll at BMW Edge theatre.
The workshops encouraged the players set personal goals and think about how they would achieve their dreams, then write them down and share them with the room.
“It is not enough to have an idea in your head. You need to share it. That takes courage. That is your challenge,” said Kevin.
He said it was not important how the goal was written or spelt. It was the action of writing it down which truly symbolised the intention to achieve it.
Kevin, who was abandoned by his drug-addicted parents when he was just six, told how discovering football as a child had changed his life, just as it had for the players of the Homeless World Cup.
“A ball can save a life. That is why every time you see that ball go in the back of the net this week, you will think about your dreams. Just as that player has reached their goal, you too will think of how you will reach yours.”
Everyone at the workshops received wristbands with the word DREAM inscribed on them, which represented the values of Dedication, Responsibility, Education, Attitude, and Motivation.
Speaking at his third Homeless World Cup, Kevin acknowledged that the road to achieving dreams was a difficult one, but also a highly rewarding one.
“It will not be easy,” he said. “But anything worth having takes dedication, time and effort.”
He told the players: “Your circumstances do not dictate your future”, and said he was living proof of that.
One Zimbabwean player said his goals were to play professional soccer for his local team in Zimbabwe, build a house for his homeless family, start up a soccer academy for the young people in his community and take care of and empower the orphans back at home.
Others simply wanted to do the best they could for their country in Melbourne and be able to return home with renewed pride and enthusiasm for life.
Kevin said he was greatly honoured to be in the presence of such leadership, and challenged the players to take those values home with them after the tournament concluded on December 7.
“You are all ambassadors. Make a commitment to your dreams, your goals, and your futures.”
What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!
It is truly a big world and the problems in it often require that those with more give to those with not quite as much. Sport that creates or helps facilitate social change often requires travel - because the children of most struggling nations bear the brunt of poverty, disease and war. Here is another story of people seeing a need - far away from home - and using the time and talent that they possess to help kids in need…
From Seacoast Online:
Soccer goal: Seacoast United’s goodwill trip to Kenya’s ‘win-win’
A girl’s homemade soccer ball puts life in perspectiveBy Mike Sullivan
August 03, 2008 6:00 AMLife is all about perspective. Our perceptions of what is good, bad, beautiful, ugly or anything in between depend on the individual and what his or her collective experiences have been. Paul Willis and Matt Glode, the executive director and director of youth programs for Seacoast United Soccer Club in Hampton, recently got a crash course in perspective.
The pair embarked on a goodwill trip to Kenya, spending three days conducting a workshop for Kenyan leaders of youth sports organizations, and then spent four days assisting with a four-day clinic for as many as 60 girls a day…
Eve, 16, is the mother of a 1-year-old child, which is commonplace in Kenya. Eve loves soccer so much she actually plays it, which isn’t commonplace in Kenya. Girls playing sports is, by and large, frowned upon. And that’s putting it mildly.
Eve would sneak away from her home to locations where her parents couldn’t find her so she could play. If her father found out, he would beat her. The beatings didn’t stop her, though.
One day, her father was walking home from work and he heard a bunch of boys in a field calling Eve’s name. He stopped to find out what was going on and couldn’t believe his eyes. The boys were calling to her because they wanted the ball — she was the best player on the field.
From then on, the beatings stopped. The father understood. He realized this was good for his daughter and that soccer could, just maybe, help her find a better life…
Follow the link below to read the whole story…
What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!
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