Am I Giving It My All?

I just finished reading Today Matters - 12 Daily Practices to Guarantee Tomorrow's Success by John Maxwell.  It was an excellent read.  He has dedicated his life to living out the practices he writes about.  This book was jam packed with amazing true stories about people and powerful quotes.  This one was found near the beginning and really spoke to me during this season in life.


John Wooden was a basketball coach for more than forty years and only coached one losing season, his rookie season.  He lead UCLA to four undefeated seasons and a record ten NCAA championships, including seven in a row.  His emphasis on practice was key to the success of his teams.  He used to tell his players, "You have to give 100 percent every day.  Whatever you don't give, you can't make up for tomorrow.  If you give only 75 percent today, you can't give 125 percent tomorrow to make up for it."




In the book, John Maxwell tells of an opportunity have lunch with John Wooden.  He had heard that the coach carried something with him at all times that contains his life philosophy.  He asked to see it.  He pulled out two cards, exactly the same.  One was his reminder for himself.  The other was one he carried so he could share it.  On the card was this statement...




"Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."




At the time of this meeting, coach John Wooden was ninety-two years old.


This spoke to why I agreed to start this mastery journey.  I was not at peace with how I was living.  I knew that I was capable of so much more.  I want to be the best me that I can be.  The only way to truly do that is to give my best, my 100% at all times.  I confess, that much of the time I am giving far less than 100%.  Recording my numbers, I can easily see the flow up and down.  It makes it harder to deny those less than days (or weeks).  I am finding the exercise of totalling my numbers and journaling at the end of each day very revealing.  This weekend was more full of ups than downs.  My knee is still bothering me a lot.  I really can't seem to keep my stick off the floor during my form.  But I worked hard this weekend.  My numbers were really up.  I went to bed last night absolutely exhausted but feeling at peace.  I want more days like that.