Guest speaker Aug 2012: Corin Readett – “Unlocking your Potential”

To our first meeting at our new home we welcomed as our guest speaker, the new(ish) Referees Development Officer of Berks and Bucks FA, Corin Readett, who took as his topic for the evening ‘Unlocking your Potential’, or to see how we can achieve by setting ourselves some targets.

Corin started with a montage of GB medal winners from the London Olympics and asked members to suggest how Team GB had achieved such good results, which he wrote up on the flip chart. This brought up the list. Dedication, Funding, Support and Family, Commitment, Coaching, Home Advantage, Clear Goals, Preparation, Luck, Administration. Communication, Training.

What inspiration can we take from these? Corin asked. They all had a target, a goal, something to strive for. We too can set ourselves targets. These should be SMART targets, in other words Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time related. For each goal we can set sub-targets., first the Threshold Target, the bare minimum we expect to achieve, the Actual Target and the Stretched Target. These should be Short Term (next three months). Medium Term (coming season), Long Term three to five years. There would be a need to adjust these when the targets are accomplished or when circumstances change.

You can only control the controllable, said Corin, so focus your attention on the element over which you have control. For instance we have no control or influence on other referees’ performances, assessors likes or dislikes, promotion board decisions. Trying to control the uncontrollable will lead to disappointments which we want to avoid. So what can we control? Our time management, our appearance, our mentality, our administration, our ambition but of course with that comes our commitment, our dedication, our knowledge of the Laws. Then there’s our pre-match, our fitness, our kit and equipment, and post-match. All these things are down to us and all we can do is the best we can and if we fail, look at those areas over which we have control instead of blaming the uncontrollable. Be ambitious, be dedicated, have self-belief was Corin’s advice and he finished with a saying from Confucius, – Our greatest glory is not in never failing but coming back stronger when we fail. 

Our thanks to Corin for getting our new seasons’ meetings and our new venue off to such a good start.