To Coach, making each day your masterpiece meant focusing on what you are doing right now to the best of your ability. It is about recognizing that nothing can be done about what happened yesterday, and that you can only affect what will happen tomorrow by what you do today.

A useful application of this wisdom is to apply it to where you are at each moment. For example, rather than dwelling on that horrible officiating call by a ref or obsessing over what went wrong in the last game, try to keep your mind right where you are now and focus on the positive things that surround you. Let go of the past, be it a week ago or an hour ago; don’t fret about the future, be it next week or next year. Apply this wisdom in small doses throughout your day, and by the end of it you will have your masterpiece.

Coach Wooden frequently made the point of not being fooled into thinking that you could make up for today’s lack of effort by working twice as hard tomorrow. By tomorrow, today’s masterpiece opportunity is gone. Coach challenged his players by asking if you could work twice as hard tomorrow, why wouldn’t you work twice as hard today?

As Coach was fond of saying:

 “Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today”

Discipline yourself. Focus on the here and now without allowing yourself to become distracted by yesterday. Love and help your fellow man to succeed without any expectation of remuneration. Plan every day as if it matters, because each day does. Give every single day your best effort, and you will make each day your masterpiece.

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Yours in coaching,