Planet Unfitness

"The first and best victory is to conquer self. - Plato"

"Traditionally, we humans have relied on educated elites, social norms, and accepted “wisdom” to guide our thinking. The result has been problematic, with beliefs and practices like slavery, misogyny, and intolerance achieving stunning acceptance in otherwise advanced societies." - General Stanley McChrystal in "On Character: Choices That Define a Life" 

Imagine for a moment, two societal options - Vollhalla and Nerdvana. Vollhalla worships at the altar of volleyball. The best players and coaches, athletic warriors, lead society and define economics, politics, and religion - the traditional policymaking inputs. The alternative, Nerdvana, prioritizes truth, wisdom, and outputs like stellar standardized test scores and grades. Smarts, not serves and smashes define your future. 

Prove yourself in class or on the volleyball battlefield. That duality sounds chaotic, unbalanced, and illogical.

You might argue several points:

• What if I don't want either? I want to be a chef or an HVAC tech? 
• How did this dualistic society arise? 
• What if I want to compete at sport and scholarship? 

Now, digress back to reality. If you're great at thinking about, training for, and playing volleyball and get straight Fs, then you're ineligible. You might be able to sell firewood on a street corner like Ulysses Grant did in St. Louis, but you'll be in undiscovered territory re: Vollhalla. Conversely, if you're a "brain" and 4.0 student, you won't get a sniff at a turn on the service line. Knowing all 272 words of the Gettysburg Address won't get you a scholarship to play volleyball in Lincoln, Nebraska, a Vollhalla capital. 

Fortunately, you need not choose between Vollhalla and Nerdvana. You can have the best of both worlds, excelling on the court and in the classroom, following Plato's advice about conquering self. 

To have the personal freedom to do both requires sacrifice to commit to quality training in both domains. Remember that under pressure, "we sink to the level of our training." 

To excel at volleyball and school, sacrifice is unavoidable. "To get what you want tomorrow, you have to give up some of what you want today." Learning elements of critical thinking, to decide "this is what I want and that is what is required to get it" leaves you with one foot in both camps. 

Lagniappe. Your tempo will define your offense. Slow tempo allows more defensive pressure.