The dunk play is the most basic play in the game. Objective: gain a yard. The quarterback takes the snap, pivots, and delivers the ball to the fullback, who hits the line of scrimmage, head-on. The goal is to gain a yard or two. It’s not pretty, and it rarely creates a great play, but it builds confidence by creating a clear goal and achieving it. Simply put, if you don’t have the drive and determination to gain a yard, how do you ever hope to score a touchdown in the world?
Finding something assumes that you are looking for it! Finding your Butkus, in essence, means finding something you already own. It’s already a part of you, perhaps hidden deep within your psyche or, more likely, just tucked away in a simple place. Right under your nose, in your heart.
In Kevin Costner’s film “A Field if Dreams,” his character, Ray Kinsella, hears a voice from the cornfield: “If you build it, he’ll come.” He is asked to trust a whisper and listen to a feeling. The voice wants him to listen and then act, completely by faith.
While the tall corn may not be calling you, I’m sure you’ve had an inspired thought while taking a shower or driving a car. A feeling that says to take action.
His Butkus, I tell him with a wink, is slightly to the south reaching out and meeting his rear. With both hands I might add! Maybe the reason you haven’t found your Butkus yet is because you’re sitting on it!
So what is a Butkus?
No, it’s not But-Kis, it’s pronounced But-Kus. You say it deliberately, and always with an attitude. If you’re a sports fan, you’ve probably heard the name, Dick Butkus. In fact, most people in North America have heard that name, though they may not know who or what he is.
And yes, it is a strange name.
But there’s nothing funny about the iconic image or status that this name represents. As a four-year-old, when I first heard this name and saw the NFL image of Dick Butkus, he intrigued me. Actually, it was more like, “in awe.”
NFL Films states; “Dick Butkus played football with a religious fervor, with a relentless obsession, not to excel, but to dominate and demoralize. For Dick Butkus it was never a game, but a street fight, a place for all, war without restraint. Butkus he was the most destructive defender in the game and the NFL is full of stories of men who crossed paths with him. He was a force of unwieldy proportions; he was Moby Dick in a fishbowl. His career stands as the most sustained work of devastation in history committed on a football field by anyone, anywhere and at any time”.
Dick Butkus is remembered as the toughest man to ever play professional football. A guy who, come what may; he would not quit. He never won a championship or a Superbowl; Hell, his team was so bad they didn’t even make it to a playoff game. However, that didn’t stop him from becoming one of the greatest players in NFL history.
As a twelve-year-old football player myself, I wanted to be Dick Butkus. Everything from his hulking walk to the colors of his uniform was formidable. Everything captured my imagination. His linebacker stance, crouched like a puma ready to pounce, was intimidating enough. But when he moved, fully engaged, he launched himself with reckless abandon; he was like no other player on the field.
Butkus, for me, became a metaphor for movement and a symbol of effort and achievement. No matter what the odds, you never give up. If I summoned my Butkus, I knew what to do and when to do it.
Now that I’ve painted a picture of what Butkus looked like and how important he was, I have to tell you that I didn’t get it right away. In fact, it took me more than thirty years to understand it. I had to dig deep into my memories to find something I thought I already knew.
And that is the problem! “Having means nothing if you don’t know how to use” is a topic for further discussion, but for now, it’s safe to say; simply knowing something does not make it valuable.
Well-informed people are often overworked, underpaid, and looked down upon not only by others, but mostly by themselves. Michelangelo, the great artist (not the ninja turtle) says, “The greatest danger for most of us lies not in aiming too high and falling short, but in aiming too low and reaching the goal.”
Have you been achieving the low side of what you ask for? Looking for success in all the wrong places? You were taught, as I was, that opportunities required years of suffering to achieve. Are they out of your control? Were you told to learn more, create skills you didn’t have, and go to places set up by someone else? Then when you got there you told him again, it would be hard, indeed life was hard. You had to be tough and learn to put up with what you don’t want, to get what you do! Shit.
I mean, what you want – wants you, what you seek seeks you. What you want does not simply exist, more exactly, it already exists within you. It’s not difficult, but yes, it’s intense and requires your full attention. Have you heard, I am sure of the natural laws of the universe? I maintain that the “Law of Attraction” does not exist as an external magnet to get you what you want, but instead synchronizes your desires to give you more of what you already have.
In the movie ‘The Lion King’, Mufasa calls from the heavens to his son, Simba, ordering him to “Remember who you are!” Your job is to find, perhaps simply remember, “what” it is that you already have. it will lead you to find your Butkus.
Strike that; Remember who you are! Find your own words, Find your??? in the life!
Like the basic scuba game, create a target you can trust, one that builds trust. Keep it simple, something as warm as a puppy. Guaranteed to gain a yard whenever you need it. Just feeling good can put you in the right frame of mind to start realizing what’s important.
It’s not discovering what works in life, no, it’s finding your happiness. Trust me, if my dream was a guy named Dick Butkus, what could you want to be crazier? Open the door to your desires, listen to your field of dreams, and then allow all the people, places, and things you desire to come to you.
Bob Mueller is an EMMY AWARD winner. He uses the story Finding Your Butkus in Key Note Speeches, Training & Coaching. http://www.encontrandotubutkus.com
