I actually had a lot of positive feedback from the first article I wrote, which caught me off guard. I’m not the writer in my family; it’s my sister, Rainesford, who is literally the smartest individual I have ever met.

She probably doesn’t know this, but she inspires me a lot. One of the most inspiring things she does is she takes care of the little things before they turn into big problems.

Think about that for a second. It sounds like common sense I know, but I have come in contact with so many people, mainly college students, that wait and wait and wait until a small thing gets blown up into an internal world war three.

Like I said in my last article, I’m an athlete, and I know athletes, so that’s where most of my references will come from. No one wants to sound ignorant, right?

Taking care of the small things, is that an entire life thing or just a sports thing? Well if you didn’t already know, it’s both, and it plays a huge part in just about every aspect of your life.

For example, let’s take an Olympic sprinter. If you haven't watched Olympic sprinting, specifically Usain Bolt, you need to find it on YouTube. It is seriously one of the most interesting things to see if you like comparisons.

Now, bear with me for a second and let me explain why. Some people I know just stopped reading because now they think, “Not only is he a sh*t writer, but he’s also insane.” Regardless of whether or not that’s true, those who stopped reading this are going to miss out.

The most interesting part is at the end of the race where they show to times of everyone who ran. The times? What the hell?

I know, I know, but what separates the first place runner from literally everyone else? The smallest fraction of a second, that little bit differentiates a gold medal from a silver medal. That final pass is what decides whether or not someone will score, and I would even go as far to say a fraction of a second can separate one person getting a job to one person not getting the same job.

In soccer, coaches preach detail. I have been very fortunate in my athletic career to play for some amazing coaches who turned out to be equally as good of people. They all had one thing in common: they always preached detail.

Pass to the proper foot, pass with the correct foot, don’t flick the ball, play with courage and so on. At the early stages in my career I thought that they were crazy, and just wanted to p*ss me off because they had a bad day, and wanted me to feel their wrath.

If any young athletes are reading this, I can promise you that they know what they are talking about. Even non-athletes reading this, take that into context with your own life. Making the jump to the next level whether that is in sports, the medical field or anything in between, take that and apply it to your own life.

My family, sorry I have to brag, does this to a tee. As annoying as it was, they made my siblings and me pay attention to every little f*cking detail. I grew up with awesome parents, and I think they raised an amazing kid, well not amazing but semi-decent.

I understand my writing is a bit all over the place, but what I am trying to get at are the little things, the details. They’re the things that a lot of people overlook, but the really smart people and the people that know what they are doing pay the most attention too.

“You can’t worry about the destination, but enjoy your journey.”

That’s one of my favorite quotes, but sometimes I forget it. I call my parents and they remind me to take care everything in front of me one step at a time, to do it, down to the smallest detail, to the best of my ability and everything will be okay. They are 100 percent right.

If you want something, it’s yours for the taking, and that goes for almost anything besides theft. Just know that what you want, someone else probably wants too; so what’s going to separate both of you?

Work hard, but work smart as well. What’s going to be the fraction that separates you from someone else to get the promotion or win a national championship?

I’m not saying if you don’t do this stuff you won’t achieve your dream or be great. The only thing I’m asking is this: If you want it that bad, why wouldn’t you do everything to give yourself the best chance at making it?

Thanks for reading and God Bless.