How Do You Judge Yourself
Plant Grass, Pull Weeds
Hard Work - "The Journey"
Alabama football coach Nick Saban is the greatest college coach of all time. He knows that the secret to success is sustained, hard work on the process.
Saban said: "I'm tired of hearing all this talk from people who don't understand the process of hard wok - like little kids in the back seat asking "Are we there yet?" Get where you're going 1 mile marker at a time."
Steve Jobs, the late CEO of Apple said, "The journey is the reward, the destination is the disease."
What mountain are you climbing today?
What is the destination that most often distracts you from the journey and the day-to-day commitment to excellence necessary to get there?
The Journey is the Reward. Enjoy every moment!
Flush It!
One of the only guarantees in life and in competition is that there will be challenge and struggle.
What do you do when you are in the middle of competition and adversity hits? Go to your release routine and “flush it!” As the baseball mental performance coach for Girard High School, I have a toilet bank that I put on the bench every day to remind my players of this life skill.
What do you do physically to help flush the mental?
Flush the moment to Win Your Day!
The Magical Penny
The Compound Effect “is the principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices,” made consistently, over a long period of time. We have discussed this in great detail on Mental Monday’s – Do a Little A LOT. Not A LOT a Little.
For example, would you rather have (A) $3 million upfront or (B) one penny that doubles in value every day for 31 days?
To maximize your gains, the correct answer is (B). But it doesn’t happen quickly. After 19 days you’d still only have $5,243 and you might feel pretty foolish next to a friend who chose option (A).
It’s not until day 29 that the compounding gains of option (B) net you $3 million. And by day 30 your patience would have tripled option (A)’s total takings. (See Figure 1.)
Think about it – if small choices made consistently lead to big outcomes, it follows that many big outcomes come down to small choices.
The 10 minutes you read before bed. The 15 minutes you snooze in the morning. The 100 calories you don’t need at lunch. 15 minutes doing the one step drill or 10 minutes meditating a day.
Every thought you repeatedly have, every impulse you often indulge, every decision you consistently make contributes to some kind of compounding.
Do Something A LOT today to Win Your Day!
Opportunity
The obstacle you encounter is not just something that gets in your way. It’s an opportunity.
The less than expected bowling performance is not a poor performance but an opportunity for improvement.
This is not just another hour, another trip, another situation. It’s an opportunity to live with purpose, with effectiveness, with joy, gratitude, and love.
Whatever form it takes, see the opportunity. Take the opportunity to act, to speak, to learn, to improve, to understand.
Appreciate the opportunities and they return the favor. The more opportunities you make good use of, the more and better opportunities there will be.
What is your OPPORTUNITY today?
Win the Day with your Opportunity!
Setback Sets Up A Comeback
The Importance of Thought
Leadership guru John C. Maxwell offers four tips for successful thinking in his book How Successful People Think.
1. Everything begins with a thought. "Life consists of what a man is thinking about all day." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. What we think determines who we are. Who we are determines what we do. "The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts." - John Locke
3. Our thoughts determine our destiny. Our destiny determines our legacy. "You are today where your thoughts have brought you. You will be tomorrrow where your thoughts take you." - James Allen
4. People who get to the top think differently than others. "Nothing limits achievement like small thinking: nothing expands possibilities like unleashing thinking." - William A Ward.
As you THINK, so shall you become!
WTD 1424!
They Are Marvels
You Have the Capacity for Anything
I came across this quote in my morning study and wanted to share this. If you have children, work and/or coach children it should stir up some emotion. I found it very powerful. Enjoy the quote...
"Each second we live in a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that never was before and will never be again. And what do we teach our children in school? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all of the world there is no other child exactly like you. In the millions of years that have passed there has never been another child like you... You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is like you, a marvel? You must cherish one another. You must work—we must all work—to make this world worthy of its children."
Source: Joys and Sorrows: Reflections by Pablo Casals
Go Win the Day!
The Law of the Palm Tree
Palm Trees will bend but never break. They will roll with the wind and adversity, staying flexible under pressure in their strategy to survive the storm.
The palm tree knows that it must adapt to the challenge and that when the challenge has passed it can pop right back up and continue to grow.
Unlike the oak tree that is rigid, inflexible and has to get its way or it will buckle under pressure, the palm tree is flexible, chooses a path that works for the situation and then pops back up ready to fight another round.
The next time you are on the lanes competing remember that you are a Palm Tree. You will bend to adversity (lane conditions, bad breaks, competitors, etc) but you will not break.
Bend But Never Break and Win the Day!