Dennis Polian, who has most recently served in a chief of staff / senior associate AD role for Dave Aranda at Baylor, has been around football his entire life with his father, Bill, serving as the former general manger of the Panthers and Colts.
With his dad in a premier NFL role, and brothers Chris and Brian also rising through the ranks in their own respective football journeys, Dennis has experienced the unique ups and downs of the profession from the roles of a son, brother, father, and husband.
Reflecting back on his 25 years in football in a variety of roles for teams the NFL and college with recent stops at Arizona, Texas A&M, and Baylor, Dennis took to Twitter over the weekend and shared some important perspective for coaches who are entering a brief period of "down time" with their family this summer.
When so many are leaving the profession (for a variety of reasons), and it's becoming harder and harder to hire quality coaches, Polian's message should ring true for a lot of coaches reading this.
Interestingly enough, Polian believes that how much people are working hasn't changed, but the focus on what time is spent on has changed significantly.
"Less and less time is devoted to development (personal, physical, skill, etc.) and more time is devoted to recruiting (your own team, the portal, and high school) and that impacts everyone involved at all stages in the process."
Polian goes on note that he's not sure if that change is bad or good, but it is the reality of the world that we all work in now.
While he admits that it took him too long to learn this over the many years of his career, Polian notes that two things have prevented him from burning out and losing his drive.
The first is intentionally working on being present.
"Being present is a crucial element to achieving a successful balance between work and personal life. We all know it is so easy to get caught up in the demands and pressure of our jobs. However, it is essential to remember when we are present with our support system in our personal life we are more likely to feel fulfilled and happy, which can help prevent burnout in high-pressure jobs."
The second thing is remembering your "why."
"Knowing our 'Why' is also crucial. There are no shortcuts. If you want to be a successful coach, there are no shortcuts to learning great communication, how to understand different learning styles and maximize skill sets. If you want to be a great evaluator, there are no shortcuts to learning what coaches need at any given position. There are no shortcuts to learning how to use your eyes to evaluate a skill set through someone else's vision for a position or scheme."
"Knowing 'why' we do this reminds us to keep going through the emotional ups and downs. Knowing 'why' we do this also helps us filter out the noise that can keep us from being present."
Read Polian's full message in the screenshot below, which we've enlarged to make it easier to read.
