“Consistency marks a champion. Act the same, win or lose.”
– John Wooden, legendary basketball coach (1910-2010)
“Action expresses priorities.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
I’m not much of a college basketball fan anymore, but this time of year always evokes memories of John Wooden, one of sports’ most legendary developers of young men.
Emotions are a part of who we are, and they can’t – shouldn’t – be stifled completely. But emotions create peaks and valleys that tax us in terms of energy and focus, and that’s how we get married to our calendar and not our priorities.
Vince Lombardi, another legendary coach, used to admonish his players not to use elaborate or excessive end-zone celebrations when they scored a touchdown. His expectation of players who reached the end zone was to “Act as if you’ve been there before.”
What we act on, and how we act drives so much of what we get done and who we become that these lessons from Coach Wooden, Coach Lombardi and Mahatma Gandhi are difference makers regardless of who we have penciled in to our office pool brackets.
Consistency marks a champion.
Leave a Reply