Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 679 - "When Enthusiasm Is A Challenge"


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13	Issue 679
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"WHEN ENTHUSIASM IS A CHALLENGE" John Wooden Video Clip (70 sec.): Coach Wooden is asked: "What role has truth played in your life?" The ability to maintain a positive outlook when other people are communicating with you or about you in a negative way starts with: "Don’t let anybody steal your smile". This ability starts with Self-Control. Coach Wooden said: "The more concerned we become over the things we can’t control, the less we will do with the things we can control." If someone is speaking to you with a bad tone of voice ignore how they are speaking and focus only on the information. At your best, you will have sympathy for the other person’s lack of communication skills or their negative demeanor, as opposed to being upset or angered by it, and maintain your Enthusiasm. Frederick Douglas, the leader of the original abolitionist movement, was traveling in the state of Pennsylvania, and was forced, on account of his color, to ride in the baggage-car, although he had paid the same price for his passage that the other passengers had paid. When some of the passengers went into the baggage-car to console Mr. Douglass, and one of them said to him: "I am sorry, Mr. Douglass, that you have been degraded in this manner," Mr. Douglass replied: "The soul that is within me no man can degrade. I am not the one that is being degraded on account of this treatment, but those who are inflicting it upon me." Booker t. Washington was unaffected by those who attempted to degrade him as he only returned their insults with love and/or pity as he stayed focused on his goals. He wrote: "I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him." Frederick Douglas and Booker t. Washington owned their smiles. Do you own yours? Click here for personal development exercise: Issue 679. Click here for Printable Poetry: Issue 679. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Follow @woodenswisdom	COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE Neglected I don’t get much attention now, Although I'm not complaining; I'm forced to get on anyhow, Another king is reigning. She doesn't run to wait on me, However rushed I may be, Whene'er I need assistance, she Is busy with the baby. Time was my shirts were all laid out And all my duds were handy; And those were days, without a doubt, When things were fine and dandy; But now the time she gave to me She's giving to another, It keeps her busy just to be A fond and doting mother. Oh, I cut quite a figure then, To something I amounted; I stood above all other men, With her, I, only, counted. Then, often I was petted, too, And cheered when things went badly; But now another's come to woo And I'm neglected sadly. And now I come and go each day, Just merely tolerated; And often I am in the way, As she has plainly stated. My wants I'm forced to fill myself, However hard it may be; Oh, I've been put upon the shelf, And put there by a baby. And yet upon that shelf I'd stay, And all complainings smother; The lad who took my wife away Has given me his mother. And every night I kneel and pray That never will the day be That I shall fail to hear her say: 'I'm busy with the baby!' Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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