Issue 705 - "John Wooden’s Definition of Success for 2025"


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13	Issue 705
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"JOHN WOODEN’S DEFINITION OF SUCCESS FOR 2025" John Wooden Video Clip (3 min. 12 sec.): Coach Wooden is asked: "Looking back over your career which team was the greatest?" "Success is peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you’re capable." This is John Wooden’s definition of success from 1934. Here is how it is usable today. Joshua Wooden told John and his brothers: "Never try to be better than somebody else but never stop trying to be the best that you can be—and always be learning from others." In 2025, with social media, we and our children are constantly blitzed with the opportunity to compare ourselves to others and can end up on a treadmill of just trying to be better than somebody else. We also have the opportunity to observe a lot more people. The choice is: we can either be a lot more miserable by constantly comparing, or we can be a lot happier and learn a lot more—because there are so many more people we get to observe and learn from. As social media has become more and more prevalent, so have mental health problems with our adolescents. We have a chance to teach them not to compare themselves to others—but to learn from others. Coach Wooden used to say: "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Character is who you are. Reputation is what people think you are." Today’s social media environment creates an environment where we constantly look at others. If we are looking and comparing to measure ourselves, it creates anxiety (mental health issues). It creates a distraction. If we are comparing and observing to learn, it creates growth. Doing the best of which you're capable means your best effort every day, not just settling to be better than someone else. If you make your best effort your capability improves every day. That’s exponential improvement. If we can observe others and "Take the best and leave the rest.", today’s environment can be positive. "Never try to be better than somebody else but never stop trying to be the best that you can be—and always be learning from others." Thank you, Joshua and John, Wooden! Ask yourself: "Am I learning or comparing?" Click here for personal development exercise: Issue 705. Click here for Printable Poetry: Issue 705. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Follow @woodenswisdom	COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE Kindness How far a word of kindness goes; One never sees How far a smile of friendship flees. Down, through the years, The deed forgotten reappears. One kindly word The souls of many here has stirred. Man goes his way And tells with every passing day, Until life's end: 'Once unto me he played the friend.' We cannot say What lips are praising us to-day. We cannot tell Whose prayers ask God to guard us well. But kindness lives Beyond the memory of him who gives. Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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