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February 27 - March 1, 2023
“You shouldn’t waste time focusing so much of your attention on results because too often you don’t have control over those results.
kept our focus on only what we could control: our effort and our attitude in the present moment.
“By focusing on only the things you can control, it also forces you to think, live, and act in the present moment. This is so important.
“Success is not something others can give you,” Wooden said. “True success can only be attained by knowing you did your very best to become the best you’re capable of becoming. That is how I define success. I don’t care what the scoreboard says, what your record ends up being at the end of the season, or what your job title is. If you give your best, you will be a success.” And
“Effort and attitude, effort and attitude.”
“Are you doing what you want to be doing with your life? Are you doing what you love?”
You can’t blame anything outside of you for taking away your joy. Only you can take the joy out of your life.
you’ve got to stop letting stuff out there take the joy out of your life. Passion and optimism, these are things you have to give yourself. Nobody can give them to you.”
But you’ve got to zap those negative thoughts and focus on the positive. You’ve got to keep your focus on the love of the game and the good things in your life. You’ve got to take the time to be thankful for all the wonderful things you have going for you.
“If you love what you do, you find a way to turn every obstacle into an opportunity.
It’s easy to forget what an impact our own attitude has on those around us. Attitudes are contagious. Not only do we owe it to ourselves to be positive, but we owe it to those we love.
I focus on only the things I have total control over: my effort and my attitude. 2. I love what I do and I attack each day with joy and enthusiasm.
But don’t confuse setting bold goals and high expectations with being arrogant. Those things aren’t related one bit.”
no such thing as total security. It’s a false promise.
“The truth is, when you choose safety and security, you’re usually choosing complacency. And when you fall into complacency, you lower your expectations and you give up your biggest dreams.
When your goal is to simply survive, you’ll...
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the goal is to be the very best one can be, then I had to make sure I gave myself and my team the opportunity to reach for our highest potential.
Failure is a necessary step on the path to making big dreams comes true. But failure along the way confirms that you’re setting big goals, and that’s good!
It’s amazing what you can achieve when you start focusing on the reasons why you can do something instead of the reasons why you can’t.”
remind myself of all the reasons my dreams CAN come true.
Every day, a person makes the choice to either move forward or backward.
Being tired makes cowards of us all.
“It’s amazing what can happen when a man decides he won’t give up.
Most people have no idea how much pressure they can take, how many obstacles they can withstand, how many times they can get knocked down and still get back up. They don’t realize how far they can be pushed because they place mental limits on themselves. They quit before they ever come close to reaching their true potential. “And
mental toughness is a choice you make.
setbacks are only temporary.
Tough times never last and champions recognize that.
“Another thing the mentally tough don’t do is make excuses or blame other people for their problems.
Instead, they accept full responsibility for where they are and where they’re going.
“I used to tell people, ‘If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes real good, you did it.’
Don’t try to ignore or bury that anger, use it as motivation.”
“A positive attitude won’t prevent you from facing obstacles. What a positive attitude will do is help you blast through those obstacles.
“Expect problems and then expect to overcome them.”
“When a man decides he will never give up, he assures himself of success. It sounds simple, but it’s the truth.
“A man will only rise as high as his confidence level,”
Champions, however, approach the unknowable realm with confidence and faith.
“The thing is, as I’m sure you know, confidence is a fickle thing. Fear has a way of creeping in and deflating our confidence. Once that happens, you’re in big trouble because it spreads defeatism everywhere. A team that thinks it’s going to lose is going to lose. Period. Confidence is contagious, but so is a lack of confidence.”
confidence is a precious commodity.
“The fastest and easiest way to build confidence is through preparation. If a man knows that he’s put in the work and the study and made the sacrifices necessary to be successful at something, he can be confident that he has a huge advantage over those who were not willing to pay such a price.
“Another way to increase confidence is to raise the bar of expectations for yourself and your team.
“Studying people who have already done what you wish to do is another way to quickly and easily build confidence.
There is tremendous power in self-talk and the right self-talk quickly produces self-confidence. Always
visualizing your future success,”
“The fastest way to lose confidence is to dwell on past mistakes.
“First off, ‘your best’ is a rather subjective phrase. Many people who claim they’ve given their best have actually given far less. They tend to minimize the ‘do your best’ part of the equation and maximize the ‘let God take care of the rest’ part. It doesn’t work like that.
you give anything less than your best, you’re not only cheating yourself, you’re also cheating your Maker. You have a responsibility to become the best version of yourself, the person God made you to be. Too many people back down or quit before they give their all.”
“We all experience defeat in various aspects of life. That’s what makes it so hard to trust a higher power.” “To that I would say, the story isn’t finished,” Lombardi said.
“We also have to be careful not to confuse a temporary problem with a permanent one.
1. I focus on only the things I have total control over: my effort and my attitude. 2. I love what I do and I attack each day with joy and enthusiasm. 3. I dream big and I ignore the naysayers. 4. I am relentless and I will NEVER give up on my dreams. 5. I choose faith over fear.
Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court by John Wooden with Steve Jamison
