Don't Judge

 Not a big follower of the KC Chiefs but thought this was good post by their coach Andy Reid. That said, I stole this from the Daily Stoic email.

Don't Judge

Reid to explain why that was what he chose to put on his wall. As Reid explained, what those two words mean to him was,

“Don’t put people in a box. You never know once you open the box for ’em what’s going to pop out. So give them a chance. Give them a chance to dream a little bit…I tell our coaches to this day, ‘You never know what a player is going to surprise you to be able to do.’ … Don’t box people in. We have a tendency to do that as humans—we kind of put people in these boxes…That’s the approach I’ve tried to take throughout—we’re not afraid to open the package.”

Take Travis Kelce (a Daily Stoic reader, as it happens). Early in his career, Kelce had a reputation for being brash and undisciplined, and he’d had some behavioral issues in college. Reid could have judged him as a problem player, written him off as unfit for the structured teams he runs. Instead, he saw potential and possibility, giving Kelce the space to be creative while holding him accountable to certain “non-negotiables” (like being thirty minutes early to every meeting). The result? Kelce thrived, developing one of the best tight ends in NFL history, a future Hall of Famer who has set and broken multiple records…and won, a lot.

Reid’s “don’t judge” philosophy isn’t limited to sports. It’s a powerful mantra for life. As Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditations, “You always own the option of having no opinion.” Other people and their choices, behaviors, preferences, and dreams—“These things are not asking to be judged by you,” Marcus writes. The world doesn’t need more critics, it needs more coaches—people who see potential where others see problems, who open boxes instead of sealing them shut, and who give those ready to work the chance to dream bigger than before.