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January 31 - March 13, 2021
“This philosophy came from my Dad. He told me that I should never try to be better than someone else. But, he also said that I should never stop trying to be the very best that I could be. ‘You have control over that,’ he said. ‘You don’t have control over others.’
“Focusing on the present not only means you have to stop worrying about the future, but it also means you can’t live in the future,” Wooden said. “You must be fully committed to the task at hand.
“Once my players understood the power of focusing on what they could control right at this very moment, they learned to love the process of giving their best,” Wooden said. “They learned to love the process of practicing hard. They learned to love the process of getting better every day. They learned to love the process of putting the team’s interests above their own. They learned to love the process of competing with themselves instead of comparing themselves to others.
“It was the process we focused on, not the results. Why? Because we have total control over the process. The results, on the other hand, aren’t always in our control.”
“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.”
“If you love what you do, you find a way to turn every obstacle into an opportunity. “But it all starts with loving what you do. You have to love what you do. That’s the only way to live your life. I don’t care what your job is, whether it’s prestigious or makes you a lot of money or any of that other stuff. You’ve got to love what you do!
‘Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.’ That’s a pretty good way to live your life, if you ask me.”
“Managing is about maintaining. The manager tries to maintain what is already there. His job is to manage what has already been created. He wants to coast. And let me tell you, when you start coasting, there’s only one direction you start heading: the wrong direction. “Leading, on the other hand, is about creating something new. A leader must lead his people to new heights. A leader moves forward, thinks bigger, and creates a new path—a path that wasn’t there before.
‘It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.’”
‘If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes real good, you did it.’ That’s what being a leader means. The buck stops with you when there are problems. No excuses. No blaming others.”
“Mental toughness isn’t about avoiding problems; it’s about fighting through them. You have to have a can-do, bring-it-on type of attitude. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can somehow avoid all problems. If you think like that, you’ll run for the hills as soon as things go wrong.
“The thing is, Chris, everybody gets knocked down, but champions choose to get back up. They choose to never back down and never stop trying.
“You want the secret to success in this life? Here it is: Make the decision to never, never, never, never give up on your goals and dreams. Simple as that.
the will to win and the will to excel are more important than the results that follow. Anyone who knows me knows that’s what I believe. And I’ll always stand by that belief. Man must not ever lose his will to excel and improve. That’s the point I’ve always tried to make, that you can never be apathetic or complacent. You have to keep striving, keep moving forward, keep excelling, and chasing new goals.
“When it comes to winning and losing, I believe that while you can’t always be first, you have to believe that you should have been first. You must believe that you were never beaten, but that time simply ran out on you. “Understood
“A man will only rise as high as his confidence level,” Lombardi said with a grin, as though he had just let me in on an extraordinary secret. “And confidence is all about how you approach the unknowable.”
The more confidence you have, the more faith you have, the more you believe in yourself and your abilities; the more success and happiness you will have in life.
Always tell yourself that you can do it. Never talk down to yourself. This is an important one. Make sure you understand how powerful self-talk is.”
