Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 643 - "Work for your own approval, not the approval of others." (Jia Jiang and John Wooden)


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13	Issue 643
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"WORK FOR YOUR OWN APPROVAL, NOT THE APPROVAL OF OTHERS." (JIA JIANG AND JOHN WOODEN) John Wooden Video Clip (2 min 40 sec.): Coach Terry Donahue asks Coach Wooden: "What did you learn from Abe Lincoln and Mother Teresa?" Pure magic... Don’t miss this clip. The idea of not basing your actions and happiness on the approval of others continues to grow in importance as more and more youngsters (and adults) are affected by the approval of their peers and likes and dislikes on social media. Coach Wooden emphasized: "Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, as your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are." In his book, Coach Wooden's Leadership Game Plan for Success, Coach wrote: "Do not be vulnerable to praise or criticism from outsiders. Your strength of consistency depends on how you let praise and criticism affect you. Some of it will be deserved and some of it will be undeserved. Either way, don’t get caught up in the opinions of others. When you are honest in your self-analysis, your opinion should count the most." In his book, "Rejection Proof",( https://www.rejectiontherapy.com/100-days-of-rejection-therapy ), Jia Jung talks about the freedom to accept yourself: "Constant approval-seeking causes us to bend ourselves in ways that are not authentic. We feel compelled to put on a façade to appear happy, competent, sophisticated, and worthy so we might be accepted by other people. We become someone very different from whom we were meant to be. In the end, what we really need is not acceptance from others, but acceptance from ourselves. In fact, being comfortable with who we are should be a prerequisite—not the result—of seeking others’ approval. We should all have the knowledge that who we are is good enough to get a yes from ourselves." Can this be taught to young people? Click here for personal development exercise: Issue 643. Click here for Printable Poetry: Issue 643. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Follow @woodenswisdom	COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE Out In The Open Out in the open, I long to be free, Where the song that I hear is the song of the sea, And the voice that I list to is soothing and sweet, Away from the sound of the tramping of feet, Not urging me ceaselessly into the fray, Not spurring me ever to work when I 'd play; Not picturing fame with its wealth and its power, And the glory to be in my conquering hour, But a voice that is tender and soothing and low, That bids me to rest and to live as I go. Out in the open, I long to be free, To lazily dream in the shade of a tree, To gaze into space where are pictures that soothe Of life as a river, unruffled and smooth; Not men at the forges, not men at the plows, Not men winning wealth by the sweat of their brows, Not men sore of muscle and weary of brain, Unwilling to pause lest another should gain The heights they are seeking, but men who can rest And know that in living the dreaming is best. Out in the open, I long to be free, Away from the haunts of the glories to be, To tune my poor soul to the song of a star, And live for a while in the glories that are; To rest when I 'm weary and drop from the strife, Content with the blessings God gives us with life, Not bound to the forge or the plow by a chain That keeps men at work for the glory of gain, No slave to the future, too frightened to rest, But living the present and finding it blest. Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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