Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 199 - There is a Wonderful, almost Mystical, Law of Nature That Says Three of the Things we Want Most - Happiness, Freedom and Peace of Mind - Are Always Attained When We Give Them to Others


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 4	Issue 199
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THERE IS A WONDERFUL, ALMOST MYSTICAL, LAW OF NATURE THAT SAYS THREE OF THE THINGS WE WANT MOST - HAPPINESS, FREEDOM AND PEACE OF MIND - ARE ALWAYS ATTAINED WHEN WE GIVE THEM TO OTHERS Here are some key ideas regarding the three things we want most: Happiness: Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves. - James M. Barrie Freedom: For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. – Nelson Mandela Peace of Mind: When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. - H. H. the Dalai Lama In his book The Essential Wooden, with Steve Jamison, Coach expanded on the idea: It has been my experience that doing good for others brings great inner peace, even joy, especially when done without thought of getting something back in return. Expecting so much as a thank you diminishes the joy of giving and helping others. At least it does for me. “A day lived without doing something good for others is a day not worth living.” Mother Teresa wrote those words - and I believe those words to be true. In the book A Game Plan for Life, former LSU Coach and John Wooden mentee Dale Brown shared the most important lesson he learned from Coach Wooden: The greatest lesson I learned from Coach was to love what you were doing every day, and to love people. Many times when the waiter was pouring water for us in a restaurant, Coach would say "thank you" while everyone else at the table just kept talking. Everyone felt his love for people - from those he didn't really know, to his buddies. Coach often told me that fame, fortune and power are not success, that three of the things we want most - happiness, freedom, and peace of mind - are always attained when we give them to others. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Twitter: @woodenswisdom	COACH'S Favorite Poetry AND PROSE The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost
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