Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 169 - Additional Areas of Regret


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 4	Issue 169
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ADDITIONAL AREAS OF REGRET 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. Last week we discussed the first area of regret, wasting time, this week we will discuss the next four: 2. I regret not pursuing a career that I was passionate about sooner. One of the cornerstones of Coach’s Pyramid of Success is Enthusiasm. Coach’s advice is simple: to attain peace of mind you must truly enjoy what you are doing. Coach had some very direct advice on this topic: Complaining, whining and making excuses just keeps you out of the present. If your complaints are constant, serious, and genuine about your calling, then leave when practical. If you lack Enthusiasm for your job, get out or at least recognize that you will never perform at your highest level. 3. I wish I had spent more time with my family and friends. A foundational quality of Coach’s Pyramid is Friendship. As Coach liked to say:Do not get so concerned with making a living that you forget to make a life. 4. I wish I had not worried so much about what other people thought about me. Coach’s advice on this topic requires another Pyramid block: Self Control. Coach put it this way: Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Character is what you really are. Reputation is what people say you are. Character is more important. Never try to be better than someone else. But always be learning from others. Never cease trying to be the best you can be. One is under your control, the other isn’t. 5. I wish I had learned earlier in life to let go of past mistakes and resentment. Once again, Coach advises us on the need for Self Control: A mistake is valuable if you do four things with it: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it. The more concerned we become over the things we can’t control, the less we will do with the things we can control. Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Twitter: @woodenswisdom	COACH'S Favorite Poetry AND PROSE To a Waterfowl Whither, 'midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way? Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, As, darkly painted on the crimson sky, Thy figure floats along. Seek'st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, Or where the rocking billows rise and sink On the chafed ocean side? There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,-- The desert and illimitable air,-- Lone wandering, but not lost. All day thy wings have fanned At that far height, the cold thin atmosphere: Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, Though the dark night is near. And soon that toil shall end, Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest, And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend Soon o'er thy sheltered nest. Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given, And shall not soon depart. He, who, from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone, Will lead my steps aright. William Cullen Bryant
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