December 30, 2013
By bethmordecai
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Dear Hevreh,
This is one of my favorite times of the year, and not just because it is the beginning of a new year, but because as an avid football fan it is the beginning of the playoffs of the National Football League as well as Bowl season (which is another type of playoff) for college football. I feel especially joyous because yesterday my favorite football team, thePhiladelphia Eagles, clinched an unlikely spot in the playoffs. The next few weeks will be full of anticipation and excitement as the Eagles, along with 11 other franchises (and their fan bases) vie for a spot in the most widely watched sporting event for the year — the Super Bowl.
Making it to the playoffs (or to a bowl game for college teams) is not an easy accomplishment. It is the result of thousands of hours of hard work, dedication, and luck to reach this level of success. Yet, a common factor that distinguishes the playoff teams from the non-playoff teams is the ability to “self scout” (see minute 1:35 to 2:35 for a short video by Eagles head coach Chip Kelly on the concept of self-scouting). As opposed to simply “scouting,” or assessing, the opponent that a team hopes to defeat, good teams assess their own strengths and weaknesses as well. How can we do a better job? How can we put ourselves in a better position to succeed? This step is critical because when we are willing to look at ourselves in the mirror and critically assess our performance to make it better while staying true to our core principles, we can make the necessary adjustments that often separates a single victory from a pattern of consistent success.
This morning, a group of us met with our Duck Race partners at the YMCA to “self-scout” our delightful Duck Race earlier this month. We talked about the positives and the challenges we experienced while critically assessing how we need to be better in order for the Duck Race to be a continued success. Self-scouting is an important process that we must sustain throughout the entire Duck Race project planning process if we want to get it to the level we know it can reach. In that regard, how appropriate is it that we begin this process at the beginning of a New Year, which, according to Jewish wisdom, is a time fort’shuvah, a type of “personal self-scouting.”
So my prayer for all of us during this New Year season is that on a personal and communal level, we do the necessary self-scouting to raise our game to a “playoff level” of success.
Kol Tuv,
Rabbi Ari Saks
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