Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 168 - The Future May be When You Wish You Had Done What You Are Not Doing Now


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 4	Issue 168
Craig Impelman Speaking \| Championship Coaches \| Champion's Leadership Library Login
THE FUTURE MAY BE WHEN YOU WISH YOU HAD DONE WHAT YOU ARE NOT DOING NOW This favorite quote of Coach Wooden's is designed to cause us to think about how we are approaching our lives on a daily basis. There have been many articles written where older people are interviewed, and talk about what regrets they have about the way they did things when they were younger. This advice is passed along to younger people, with the hope that they will live a happier, more productive life now, rather than later. , As a result of my research I compiled eight areas of life people most commonly had regrets about. Then, using the Pyramid of Success, I put together some advice from Coach Wooden on these most common areas of regret. This issue will address the first area people have regrets about: 1. I regret all the time I wasted. In the Industriousness Block of the Pyramid of Success, Coach says worthwhile results come from hard work and careful planning. In his book with Steve Jamison, Coach Wooden's Leadership Game Plan for Success, Coach commented on how he valued time: One of the very few rules I enforced from my first day of coaching until my last was as follows: “Be on time.” Players—even assistant coaches—who broke this rule faced serious consequences. Being late showed disrespect for time. I felt that one of the ways I could signal my own reverence for time was to insist on punctuality. And, to be punctual myself. If a player appeared to be taking it easy during practice, not giving it everything he had, I told him sternly, “Don’t think you can make up for it by working twice as hard tomorrow. If you have it within your power to work twice as hard, I want you to do it right now.” This was another way of telling them not to waste time; to make this practice a masterpiece. I believe effective organization of time—budgeting and managing time—was one of my assets as a coach. I understood how to use time to its most productive ends. Gradually, I had learned how to get the most out of a minute. In return, each minute gave back the most to our team. I was never the greatest X’s and O’s coach around. Never. But I was among the best when it came to respecting and utilizing time. I valued it, gave it respect and tried to make each minute a masterpiece. Make Each Day Your Masterpiece. You have nothing without time. Treat it with great respect. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Twitter: @woodenswisdom	COACH'S Favorite Poetry AND PROSE Renascence (Part Four) I ceased; and through the breathless hush That answered me, the far-off rush Of herald wings came whispering Like music down the vibrant string Of my ascending prayer, and—crash! Before the wild wind’s whistling lash The startled storm-clouds reared on high And plunged in terror down the sky, And the big rain in one black wave Fell from the sky and struck my grave. I know not how such things can be; I only know there came to me A fragrance such as never clings To aught save happy living things; A sound as of some joyous elf Singing sweet songs to please himself, And, through and over everything, A sense of glad awakening. The grass, a-tiptoe at my ear, Whispering to me I could hear; I felt the rain’s cool finger-tips Brushed tenderly across my lips, Laid gently on my sealèd sight, And all at once the heavy night Fell from my eyes and I could see,— A drenched and dripping apple-tree, A last long line of silver rain, A sky grown clear and blue again. And as I looked a quickening gust Of wind blew up to me and thrust Into my face a miracle Of orchard-breath, and with the smell,— I know not how such things can be!— I breathed my soul back into me. Ah! Up then from the ground sprang I And hailed the earth with such a cry As is not heard save from a man Who has been dead, and lives again. About the trees my arms I wound; Like one gone mad I hugged the ground; I raised my quivering arms on high; I laughed and laughed into the sky, Till at my throat a strangling sob Caught fiercely, and a great heart-throb Sent instant tears into my eyes; O God, I cried, no dark disguise Can e’er hereafter hide from me Thy radiant identity! Thou canst not move across the grass But my quick eyes will see Thee pass, Nor speak, however silently, But my hushed voice will answer Thee. I know the path that tells Thy way Through the cool eve of every day; God, I can push the grass apart And lay my finger on Thy heart! The world stands out on either side No wider than the heart is wide; Above the world is stretched the sky,— No higher than the soul is high. The heart can push the sea and land Farther away on either hand; The soul can split the sky in two, And let the face of God shine through. But East and West will pinch the heart That can not keep them pushed apart; And he whose soul is flat—the sky Will cave in on him by and by. Edna St. Vincent Millay
For more information visit www.woodenswisdom.com