President’s Post – November 2017
Practice Makes Perfect
Eric Imley & Gale Swartz, Co-Presidents
Rabbi Daniel Cohen wrote an article about Alan Klein, an esteemed NBA conditioning coach detailing the first time Klein met current NBA player Stephen Curry, then age 16. In his remarks, Klein wrote, “I knew immediately Curry was going to be a future NBA superstar, and it was all because of his work habits. When most players were still in their flip flops, Stephen Curry had already started doing some form shooting. By the time the workout officially started, he’d already made 100–150 shots. He made sure his foot work and shooting form would be perfect. If he did anything and it wasn’t perfect, he did it over again, and he didn’t need a coach to tell him, he just did it.”
The moral of that story is that success is not an accident; success is actually a choice. Stephen Curry is one of the best shooters on the planet today because he has made the choice to create great habits. Klein concludes by asking, “Are the habits that you have today on par with the dreams you have for tomorrow? That’s something you need to ask yourself every single day, because whatever you do on a regular basis today will determine where you will be tomorrow.”
What can TBE learn from the NBA? Your TBE Board of Directors is looking at our own game plan and how we will practice necessary skills to grow as a community. Two strategies we have chosen to focus on are: 1) taking stock of ourselves as a congregation, and 2) what we want and what we need to do to continue forward.
Past TBE President Marc Kaiser is leading the first of these strategic activities. You will be asked to participate in small group conversations so that we, together, can shape the future of our beloved Temple. While these conversations are to engage about Temple issues, we also look at it as an opportunity for congregants to get to know one another better and find common areas of interest to build stronger relationships within our community.
Our second activity includes our participation in the Union for Reform Judaism’s recent congregational bench-marking study. Many of us were randomly selected to share our thoughts and opinions. The study allows us to measure ourselves in many areas against other congregations across the U.S. and Canada. The results will be presented at a future TBE Board meeting, which we hope you will attend. The data will help us learn and will be an integral part of shaping our exciting future.
As Rabbi Daniel Cohen writes, “Success is not an accident. It’s not about that moment of glory. Real success is built on consistent choices.” Like NBA superstars, let’s choose to practice, practice, practice, come together, actively participate and bring solutions to strengthen our community.