Famed football coach Vince Lombardi was known for his focus on fundamentals.  One of his most renown quotes hails from the time we walked into a football training camp, held up a “pigskin” and said, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” Lombardi knew the key to success was eX willing in the basics. For football, the basics were running, tossing, catching, and tackling. For music it is mastery of scales and etudes. Whether it’s hobbies or business, families or friendships, returning to the basics always leads to success. It sharpens our focus, renews our ambition, strengthens our resolve, and guides our path. No one succeeds in their quest without periodically going back to the basics.

What does that look like in your life? We tend to flock to popular authors to give us new insight on “how to” have a happy marriage, a healthy family, a successful upward moving career, or any number of other ambitions. But if you sit back and think about it, don’t you already know the basics that propel our progress in all of these? Robert Fulghum struck a chord when he wrote, Everything I needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten:”

1. Share everything.
2. Play fair.
3. Don’t hit people.
4. Put things back where you found them.
5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
6. Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
7. Say you’re SORRY when you HURT somebody.
8. Wash your hands before you eat.
9. Flush.
10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
11. Live a balanced life – learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.
12. Take a nap every afternoon.
13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.
16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first work you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

How does going back to the basics help us?

1. It sharpens our axe and refines our focus. It helps us “put off” all the “junk” that hinders us and “put on” that which moves us toward our most treasured  life goals. It speaks purpose to our life.
2. It stirs us from complacency and reminds us what is really important. It rejuvenates us and refuels our imaginations and our passion for living.
3. It levels the playing field. The virtuoso and the beginner meet on common ground in the school of basics. It helps us learn from and really connect with one another.
4. It humbles us by reminding us there is always something new to learn or relearn.

It’s being gentle and respectful and loving when you feel like acting contrary. It’s putting down your right to be right, even if you are, so you can communicate one on one with another human being. It’s listening more than speaking and sharing when tempted to keep. It’s being honest and vulnerable while standing firm in your beliefs. It’s building others up, not tearing them down.

If you are a Christian, it’s not just asking “What would Jesus do?” It’s doing what he did. For him, the basics included frequent moments of solitude and prayer, humble submission before his Heavenly Father, doing only what He told him to do. For Jesus the basics meant investing in close and meaningful relationships with others and living a life marked by compassion on those he called “the least of these.” In it’s most summarized form,  Jesus reminds us the basics are:

Love God fully.

Love one another.

Whatever is on your agenda today, it will benefit from focusing on the fundamentals of life and going back to the basics.