Smells Like Teen Spirit and Potential

For Ted Lasso, it truly does smell like potential. A middle aged, father, (struggling) husband, friend, and former American football coach, turned English football coach. Ted has been scouted, recruited, and ultimately hired by AFC Richmond, a rag tag soccer team in the English Premier League along with his best friend and assistant coach, Coach Beard. Did I fail to mention that Ted has no soccer coach experience AT ALL? 

This is what makes this character such an interesting topic for motivational analysis. Throughout the series, Ted is the ever optimistic, go into the situation head first with a smile on your face kind of guy. Until some situations cause him not to be but it never stops him from believing that there is potential in every situation. 

Ted has a lot of goals throughout the show. In fact, I believe the whole premise of the show is  him just having a to do list of people to fix, emotions to regulate, and friends to make. Some of his major goals include: 

• Getting AFC Richmond into the championship
• Befriending the bitter ex-wife of the old team owner now turned new team owner
• Getting his wife back
• Making the team a cohesive unit
• Building confidence in the people that would often get looked over otherwise
• Figuring out how to regulate sudden onset mental health issues
• Learning how to be a soccer coach with no soccer experience and gain the respect of a nation.

These are just a few major goals within the show with a few other ones scattered in throughout the show. I believe this character has the best potential to highlight the various theories in goal setting, motivation, and goal strivings.