Browsing Tag: johnwooden

I believe the greatest joy one can have is doing something for someone else without any thought of getting something in return.

I wish more people, me included, acted that way.

If you don’t know what this post/series is about, see the John Wooden tag and specifically the first quote I posted.

You should learn as if you were going to live forever, and live as if you were going to die tomorrow.

I love this. He’s talking about the need to always be learning and improving yourself, as if you were going to need this knowledge for the “long journey ahead.” But at the same time you should appreciate every moment and live with a sense of immediacy, and “not waste even a minute.”

That’s what I was talking about in this post when I said this:

“Realizing that your life is probably more than half over seems to refocus everything. I cherish the Good Things more than ever. I have less and less patience for pettiness, silliness, and stupidity.”

If you don’t know what this post/series is about, see the John Wooden tag and specifically the first quote I posted.

It only weakens those we want to help when we do things for them that they should do themselves.

As a parent, I need to remember this and live it more often. In the name of doing something the right way, or my way, or the fast way, I often do stuff for the kids that they should learn to do themselves. Need to stop doing that now.

If you don’t know what this post/series is about, see the John Wooden tag and specifically the first quote I posted.

John Wooden’s father had rules about how he felt people should conduct themselves in life. He called these rules “two sets of threes.” The first set was about honesty:

Never lie.
Never cheat.
Never steal.

The second set was about handling tough times:

Don’t whine.
Don’t complaint.
Don’t make excuses.

Pretty good rules, if you ask me.

If you don’t know what this post/series is about, see the John Wooden tag and specifically the first quote I posted.

“Discipline yourself and others won’t need to.”

For Christmas today, I received a copy of this book, simply called Wooden. It’s a collection of short stories and observations by a man whose wisdom I’ve cherished for more than 20 years. As I read along, I’ll be posting some of my favorite quotes from the book. You can see the full collection in the John Wooden tag for this blog.