Chapter 6
The Three Key Components of Row the Boat

P.J. Fleck

 

An illustration of two oars. A text reads, Row the boat.

The Oar

An illustration of an oar.

The oar is the energy of your life—your mission and your purpose. It is the symbol of strength in the RTB culture. You choose whether your oar is in the water or whether you take it out and decide not to use it. Whether it's windy, raining, and stormy, or a calm, beautiful, sunny day, you decide to row or not. The oar is the only tool that moves the boat. This isn't a sailboat or a motorboat; without the oar, the boat does not move forward. You are the captain of your boat. You dictate to where and how fast to go. If you stop rowing, your life comes to a standstill. Just as the oar needs to be in the water for the boat to move, you must immerse yourself in life to live it to the fullest. Your energy is contagious and the energy you invest and share with others determines the quality of your life. When using the oar, there will be times when rowing is extremely hard, and will require intense, powerful work. At other times, efficiency—the smarter-not-harder approach—will be utilitzed in a calculated way to navigate through life.

Our RTB lifestyle is about two things: serving and giving. The oar allows us to share our program with our community, university, state, and country and to let others know we are rowing with them. In our football facility and stadium, oars from everywhere hang on the walls. The beautiful thing is that each oar has its own story to tell. Every spring, we encourage our fans to drop off personalized oars that we hang in the tunnel of our stadium. These oars usually represent lost loved ones, adversity, illness, or other trying times. We hear a lot of stories that touch our hearts and impact our program. These oars, the energy from our community, are the last thing our players see as they take the field on game day.

We also send out oars to people who let us know their story, struggle, and battles. Each oar has a certain color that represents a particular challenge or cause. Pink oars are for breast cancer. Puzzle piece oars are for autism awareness. Red oars are for heart disease. We even have yellow oars for troops that come home to our community. We want our fans, community, alumni, and others to know that we are rowing right along with them and that the people in our program can make a huge difference in the lives of others. The oar has become a powerful symbol of the energy we all possess to make a difference.

The Boat

An illustration of a person in a rowboat holding two oars.

The boat represents sacrifice. This analogy is as simple as it gets. The more you serve, give, and make your life about helping others, the better and more fulfilled your life will be. The more you do this, the bigger your boat gets. Little boats don't go very far or carry many people. They sink in big storms. Big boats go a long way, carry more people, and can handle the biggest storms.

I have realized that when adverse situations happen in my life, the only way to truly feel any better is to serve and give somehow, in some way. The more you sacrifice in your life and give to others, the stronger your life and boat become. Listening to, looking for, and lifting up those around you to make them better builds a stronger boat.

Row the Boat is not about focusing on yourself. It's about rowing through life to be great for others and to help others be their best. No one rows through life alone, so the boat represents a group of people all rowing together. When the group is rowing with a common focus, intention, mission, and purpose, the group becomes a team and the team becomes unstoppable. The more you serve others, the bigger your boat gets and the larger your team becomes. Your impact expands and more people decide to row with you. This doesn't happen overnight, but as your boat and your impact grow, your life becomes more rewarding. We teach our players that they should never be a better football player than they are a person. Sacrifice is the key to fulfillment.

The Compass

An illustration of a compass that shows the direction.

The compass is the direction, the beacon to help take us from where we are to where we dream of going. The vision we have for our lives, how we speak to ourselves, and the people we surround ourselves with help create this dream. If you want to be a doctor, tell yourself you can be a doctor and find a way to be around doctors. If you want to be a coach, tell yourself you can be a coach and get around coaches. If you want to heal from a hardship you are going through, tell yourself you can and then spend time with others who have been through and have overcome the same struggle.

A boat race has a finish line you are rowing toward. In life there is no finish line. The dream is the journey and the journey is the dream. You have to just keep rowing. You don't get a perfect set of plans. Rather, life gives you a north star and other people to join you on your journey. From mentors, you learn how to become who you want to be. From friends, you learn how to give and receive in a relationship. From those who are struggling, you learn how to practice empathy. From those who are enjoying success, you learn how to celebrate others. From those who want to give up, you learn how to give encouragement. From others' mistakes, you learn what you don't want, and from your heroes, you learn what you do want. The people in your life help point you in the direction you want to go. Wherever you are headed in life, you need direction, belief in yourself, and other people to help you get there. The compass is your tool to move forward on that path.

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