Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 173 - We Can Do More Good by Being Good Than Any Other Way


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 4	Issue 173
Craig Impelman Speaking \| Championship Coaches \| Champion's Leadership Library Login
WE CAN DO MORE GOOD BY BEING GOOD THAN ANY OTHER WAY This favorite quote of Coach Wooden's on its surface may seem to present a difficult challenge: How can we on a daily basis live a life that represents being good and thus have a positive influence on others? In his book A Game Plan for Life, with Don Yeager, Coach Wooden explains how easy it is to be good: There are things I learned from watching my father that I purposely tried to copy in my own life. But other things I found were just kind of absorbed, and became a part of my thinking and reactions without my really thinking about them. I admired my father's refusal to speak badly about others, but I don't think I necessarily set out to make that a rule for myself. I imagine I considered that to be too lofty a goal. Yet, as time went on, I found it was a practice that had etched itself into my soul so that if I ever slipped up on that matter, I felt pain rather than satisfaction In December 2008, the British Medical Journal published a study that confirmed what many of us have known for a long time: happiness actually spreads through social interactions and connections. In other words, you are directly affected by the behavior of those around you, and your example can influence the attitude and behavior of others. And I don't think the link has to be as direct as close friends and family, either. Think about all of the complex networks we engage in every day, from the people we see at the store to the customer service agent we talked with on the phone. A smile for the busy waitress, an encouraging word to the stressed out mother with a screaming toddler, patience with the technical support person as he/she tries to answer your question - any of these can make a difference in that person's day. And if the person behind you in line sees you act kindly toward the cashier, he or she will be more inclined to do the same. It was wonderful to see the phenomenon of contagious happiness confirmed by science, but I already knew it was true. I'd seen my father's influence and felt it myself. So all of us have many opportunities every day to live up to Coach Wooden's idea that: We can do more good by being good than any other way. Let's just leave the house every morning determined to see how many people we can cheer up! Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Twitter: @woodenswisdom	COACH'S Favorite Poetry AND PROSE MAUD MULLER (Part Three) And the proud man sighed, with a secret pain, "Ah, that I were free again! "Free as when I rode that day, Where the barefoot maiden raked her hay." She wedded a man unlearned and poor, And many children played round her door. But care and sorrow, and child-birth pain, Left their traces on heart and brain. And oft, when the summer sun shone hot On the new-mown hay in the meadow lot, And she heard the little spring brook fall Over the roadside, through the wall, In the shade of the apple-tree again She saw a rider draw his rein, And, gazing down with timid grace, She felt his pleased eyes read her face. Sometimes her narrow kitchen walls Stretched away into stately halls; The weary wheel to a spinnet turned, The tallow candle an astral burned; And for him who sat by the chimney lug, Dozing and grumbling o'er pipe and mug, A manly form at her side she saw, And joy was duty and love was law. Then she took up her burden of life again, Saying only, "It might have been." Alas for maiden, alas for Judge, For rich repiner and household drudge! God pity them both! and pity us all, Who vainly the dreams of youth recall; For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: "It might have been!" Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope lies Deeply buried from human eyes; And, in the hereafter, angels may Roll the stone from its grave away! John Greenleaf Whittier
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