October 13, 2015

I was cleaning out a box of goodies that was left unopened from our last move and found my father’s 1966-67 coaching manual he gave out to his college basketball players at Berry College. That just happens to be the year I was born. There are many gems in this book, but I personally loved the “Ladder of Success”. I love that the foundational blocks are Industriousness, Friendship, Loyalty, Cooperation, and Enthusiasm followed by Self- Control, Alertness, Initiative, Intentness, then Condition, Skill, Team Spirit, Poise, and Confidence, and at the top, Competition Greatness – all surrounded by Ambition, Concentration, Determination, Fight, Reliability, Integrity, Honesty, and Sincerity. Success is the total package of your character and work ethic here. It is certainly not just about the number of points made or steals per game.

My father’s basketball manual is a 75 page guide that was hand typed and I could not even find one typo! The amount of work that went into this manual is very impressive. He took the time to outline his coaching philosophy and vision, his mission statement, lots of inspiration and expectations, then outlines his strategy for achieving greatness in his team. One of my favorite lines in the book is written like this:

iMPORTANT * IMPORTANT * IMPORTANT * IMPORTANT * IMPORTANT * IMPORTANT

I WANT A HUSTLING, FIGHTING TEAM THAT NEVER HAS THE TIME TO CRAB OR COMPLAIN TO ANYONE ABOUT ANYTHING.

May we all find our hustle and fight this week, giving an extra 5%, seeking to take deep breaths and be grateful for the opportunities to work hard and make an impact each day, and last but not least, may our days be free of crabby, complaining behavior. LOL

We have a full week of classes this week. Don’t forget to sign up at www.stellafit.com.

Cheers!

Stella