These are some of my favorite personal development success aphorisms.  I have given credit where I was able to.  If you have any to add, or know who I should attribute any of these to, feel free to comment below. I am far from perfect, but I work to have these thoughts guide my actions.

There are a lot of ways to become a failure, but never taking a chance is the most successful.

To be upset over what you don’t have is to waste what you do have.

Don’t wrestle with pigs.  You both get mud on you and the pig likes it.

The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.

A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a joke or worried to death by a frown on the right person’s brow. Treat them with the greatest of care

There is do, or do not. There is no try. –Yoda

Take a chance and you may lose. Take not a chance and you have lost already.  Søren Kierkegaard,

Focus 90% of your time on solutions and only 10% of your time on problems.  Anthony J. D’Angelo,

Become addicted to constant and never-ending self-improvement.  Anthony J. D’Angelo

An error is not a mistake until you refuse to correct it.

There’s nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.  Peter F. Drucker

Forget regret,  or life is yours to miss –Jonathan Larson

This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act and, in acting, to live.   Omar Bradley

Opportunities multiply as they are seized.  Sun Tzu

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.

Life is short–enjoy it while you can.

Peace of mind is the ultimate objective of all of my actions.

I make and live in my own reality so that I do not fall victim to the whims of others.

My demeanor on the sideline (bench) during a game, 10% emotion, 90% analytical.

Whether you think that you can or that you can’t, you are usually right.  Henry Ford

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. Thomas Jefferson.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.  Mark Twain

Good habits are hard to develop, but easy to live with.  Bad habits are easy to develop, but hard to live with.  Brian Tracy

You begin to become successful the minute you decide to be.

If you want to triple your success ratio, you have to triple your failure rate.

I talk to myself rather than listen to myself so that I control my thoughts.

I do not search for things to be offended by.

Anyone who is at the top of their field started at the bottom.

Success comes from managed thinking, so I will spend some time each day managing my thinking.

I will question my limiting beliefs and not question my ability to succeed.

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. Linus Pauling

The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.  Lee Iacocca

Leave your favorite below in the comments!

Edgar A. Guest

I’d rather see a sermon than to hear one any day;
I’d rather one should walk with me than merely show the way.
The eye’s a better pupil and more willing than the ear;
Fine counsel is confusing, but examples are always clear.

And, best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds;
For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.
I soon can learn to do it, if you’ll let me see it done;
I can see your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may run.
And the lectures you deliver may be very fine and true,
But I’d rather get my lesson by observing what you do;
For I may misunder­stand you and the high advice you give;
But there’s no misunderstanding how you act and how you live!

Winning is giving your best self away
Winning is serving with grace every day
You’ll know that you’ve won when your friends say it’s true.
“I like who I am when I’m around you.
You look for the best in the others you see
And you help us become who we’re trying to be.”

Winning is helping someone who’s down
It’s sharing a smile instead of a frown.

It’s giving your children a hug by the fire
And sharing the values and dreams that inspire.

It’s giving your parents the message “I care.
Thanks, Mom and Dad, for being so fair.”

Winners are willing to give more than get
Their favors are free, you’re never in debt.

Winning is giving one hundred percent
It’s paying your dues, your taxes, your rent
It’s trying and doing, not crying and stewing.

Winners respect every color and creed,
They share and they care for everyone’s need.

The losers keep betting that winning is getting
But there’s one law that they keep forgetting
And this is the Law you can live and believe
The more that you give, the more you’ll receive!

Here are a couple of inspirational poems that you might consider using in your team notebooks. They are obviously written in the masculine gender, but in my opinion, apply to all athletes!

Ambition

You are the fellow who has to decide
Whether you’ll do it or toss it aside.
You are the fellow who makes up your mind
Whether you’ll lead or linger behind
­Whether you’ll try for the goal that’s afar
Or be contented to stay where you are.
Take it or leave it; here’s something to do,
Just think it over; it’s all up to you!
What do you wish? To be known as a shirk,
Known as a good man who’s willing to work,
Scorned for a loafer or praised by your chief,
Rich man or poor man or beggar or thief?
Eager or earnest or dull through the day,
Honest or crooked? It’s you who must say!
Whether you’ll shirk it or give it your best.

The Man Who Quits

The man who quits has a brain and a hand
As good as the next, but lacks the sand
That would make him stick, with a courage stout,
To whatever he tackles, and fight it out.

He starts with a rush, and a solemn vow
That he’ll soon be showing the others how;
Then something new strikes his roving eye,
And his task is left for the bye – and – bye.

It’s up to each man what becomes of him;
He must find himself the grit and vim
That brings success; he can get the skill,
If he brings to the task a steadfast will.

No man is beaten till he gives in;
Hard luck can’t stand for a cheerful grin;
The man who fails needs a better excuse,
Than the quitter’s whining, “What’s the use?”

For the man who quits lets his chance slip,
Just because he’s too lazy to keep his grip.
The man who sticks goes ahead with a shout,
While the man who quits joins the “Down and out.”

Living with a 99% Effort

I got this list from entrepreneur and business author Harvey Mackay’s book “Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty.” (If you click on the name of the book, you can see a portion of the book from Amazon) In the book, he gives credit to Armond Bouchie for using this list in his job application portfolio.

If we had to live with 99% effort, we would have:

One hour of unsafe drinking water every month,

Two unsafe plane landings per day at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport,

16,000 pieces of lost mail every hour,

22 checks deducted from the wrong bank account every week,

500 incorrect surgical operations every week,

12 babies given to the wrong parents every day,

20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions each year, and

800,000 credit cards with incorrect information.

A 100% effort makes sense.

 

This next portion of the post contains some of my takeaways from Texas A&M Women’s Assistant Bob Starkey’s Coaching Blog Hoop Thoughts Blog

HOW DO YOU MEASURE ON THE “GRIT” SCALE?

Mitch Cole

Some educational researchers have defined GRIT as “passion and perseverance to achieve long term goals”. When struggles come, do you get more DEJECTED or more DETERMINED?

Studies have shown that the attribute of GRIT, is one of the most powerful indicators of success. The most GRITTY people usually succeed on and off the playing field or court.

Teams can become selfish during good times and turn on each other during tough times. Teams that stay together can resist the temptation to be selfish, can withstand tough times, and even conquer insurmountable odds.

Most people can appreciate a team or athletes that refuse to give up no matter what the circumstance. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from difficulty and in some cases, be better than before. This can happen when the other team goes on a run and things look most bleak, or even within a season. Teams that “Fight” and show tremendous Resilience over and over again have the best chance for sustained success.

When winners get knocked down, they get up, champions get up a little faster.

“Being relentless means constantly working for that result, not just when drama is on the line. Clutch is about the last minute. Relentless is about every minute.” -Tim Grover From “Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable”

U of Penn Duckworth Lab study found that “grit” (passion & perseverance for long-term goals) is best predictor of success. “Grit is unrelated w/ talent.”

The Duckworth Lab focuses on two traits that predict success in life: grit and self-control. Grit is the tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals. Self-control is the voluntary regulation of behavioral, emotional, and attentional impulses in the presence of momentarily gratifying temptations or diversions. On average, individuals who are gritty are more self-controlled, but the correlation between these two traits is not perfect: some individuals are paragons of grit but not self-control, and some exceptionally well-regulated individuals are not especially gritty. While we haven’t fully worked out how these two traits are related, it seems that an important distinction has to do with timescale: As Galton suggested, the inclination to pursue especially challenging aims over months, years, and even decades is distinct from the capacity to resist “the hourly temptations,” pursuits which bring momentary pleasure but are immediately regretted.

In terms of Big Five personality, grit and self-control both load on the conscientiousness factor, which also encompasses dependability, punctuality, and orderliness, among other facets.

Some educators typically prefer the umbrella term “social and emotional learning,” whereas many other educators, as well as philosophers and positive psychologists, embrace the moral connotations of “character” and “virtue.” So, grit and self-control are facets of Big Five conscientiousness, but are also conceptualized as dimensions of human character, social and emotional competency, and non-cognitive human capital.

That Extra Effort

For another angle on the importance of a 100% effort, click on the image below for a very inspirational video:

think you are really going to like this video that shows us that there is not a lot of physical difference between top performers and also rans. The big difference is in their mental strength and persistence! Click on the icon to see the video.