What is Butkus?
The diving game is the most basic game in the game. Objective: Gain one yard. The quarterback takes the snap, turns, passes the ball to the fullback – who crashes into the line of scrimmage, head-on. The goal is to gain a yard or two. It’s not pretty and rarely creates a big 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 on earth do you expect to score a touchdown?
Finding something implies that you are looking for it! Finding your Butkus is basically finding something you already own. It is already a part of you, perhaps hidden deep within your psyche, or more likely just hiding in plain site. Right under the nose – in the 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 will come.” He is asked to trust a whisper and hear a feeling. The voice wants him to listen to it and then take action – entirely on faith.
While tall corn may not be calling to you, I’m sure you’ve had an inspired thought while taking a shower or driving a car. A feeling that tells you to act.
Your Butkus, I say with a wink, lies slightly to the south, reach out and find your rear end. 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 Butkus?
No, it’s not But-Kis, it’s pronounced But-Kus. You say it knowingly and always with attitude. If you’re a sports fan, you’ve probably heard the name Dick Butkus. In fact, most people in North America have heard this name, although they may not know who or what it is.
And yes, it’s a weird name.
But there is nothing funny about the image or the iconic status this name represents. As a four-year-old, when I first heard that name and saw the image of the NFL’s Dick Butkus, I was intrigued. It was actually more “in awe”.
NFL Films states; “Dick Butkus played football with a religious fervor, with an unrelenting obsession, not to excel, but to dominate and demoralize. For Dick Butkus, this is never a game, but a street fight, a place for all, a war without obstacles. Butkus was the most disruptive defender in the game, and the NFL is full of stories of men who crossed him. He was a force of unmanageable proportions; he was Moby Dick in the goldfish bowl. His career is the longest work of devastation ever wrought on a football field by anyone, anywhere, at any time.”
Dick Butkus is remembered as the toughest man to ever play professional football. A man who, no matter what; I wouldn’t give up. He never won a championship or a Super Bowl; 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 best to ever play NFL Football.
As a twelve-year-old football player myself, I wanted to be Dick Butkus. Everything from his clumsy pigeon-toed gait to the colors of his uniform was great. Everything captured my imagination. His stance as a defender, crouched like a mountain lion ready to pounce, was intimidating enough. But when he moved, fully committed, he launched himself with reckless abandon; he was like no other player on the field.
Butkus for me has become a metaphor for movement and a symbol of effort and achievement. No matter what the odds are, never give up. If I called my Butkus, I knew what to do and when to do it.
Now that I’ve painted a picture of what Butkus looks like and how important he was, I have to tell you that I didn’t get it right away. It actually took me over thirty years to figure it out. I had to dig deep into my memories to find something I thought I already knew.
And that’s the problem! “Having means nothing if you don’t know how to use” is a topic for later discussion, but for now it’s safe to say; just knowing something doesn’t make it valuable.
Knowledgeable people are usually overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated not only by others, but most of all by themselves. Michelangelo, the great artist (not the ninja turtle) said, “The greater danger for most of us is not to aim high and not reach it; it is to aim too low and reach the goal!”
Have you hit the low side of what you want? Looking for success in all the wrong places? Were you taught, like me, that opportunities take 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 places defined by someone else? Then when you arrived, said again, it was going to be hard, in fact life was hard. You had to be tough and learn to put up with what you don’t want – to get what you do! Nonsense.
I say, what you want, wants you, what you seek, seeks you. What you want doesn’t just exist, it already exists within you. It’s not hard, but yes, it’s intense and requires your full attention! Have you heard, I am sure of the natural laws of the universe? I argue that the “Law of Attraction” does not exist as an external magnet to get you what you want, but rather it synchronizes your desires to bring you more of what you already have.
In the movie The Lion King, Mufasa called down from the heavens to his son Simba, commanding “Remember who you are!” Your job is to find, perhaps just remember, “what” you already possess. What whispers to you will lead you to Find Your Butkus.
Hit this; Remember who you are! Find your own words, Find yours??? in life!
Like the basic diving game, create a target you can count on – one that builds confidence. Keep it simple, something warm like a puppy. You’re guaranteed to gain yardage when you need it. Just the act of feeling good can put you in the right frame of mind to start noticing what’s important.
It’s not about finding what works in life, no, it’s about finding your bliss. Trust me, if my dream was a guy named Dick Butkus, could what you want be any crazier? Open the door to your desires, listen to the field of your 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 Finding Your Butkus story in keynote speeches, training and coaching. http://www.findingyourbuttkus.com
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