MM#101-- March Madness SPECIAL -- Wooden's Wisdom

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.

Hello, I'm David and welcome back to another Mojo minute. And in our last Mojo minute on March Madness, we critiqued the UCLA, incredible college basketball winning streak from the 1960s to the mid 1970s. And now, I'm anticipating some basketball purist will be texting me, telling me you can't criticize UCLA. And their championships. Yes, I'm anticipating text messages that they are the greatest period. And I'm sure they will be huffing and puffing about the 10 Championships in 12 years, and the unforgettable ADA game winning streak. But sadly, we already know that. So for all those that are going to attend text me, I'm going to refer you back before you do preemptively. I'm going to refer you back to Mr. Lund Artis book. It's that good. He lays the facts out that well. And you should read the book and then get back to me, because you understand that you have lost the debate on UCLA. UCLA would not have won 10 championships in a row in the modern era game. 

But nevertheless, no one wants to tune into these Mojo minutes to hear basketball purist debate the UCLA basketball dynasty. They do however, tune in to this podcast and the Mojo minutes to figure out how to get better. And one man that was extremely good at getting better and helping everyone else around him do that is perhaps the greatest college basketball coach in the 20th century. And that would be Mr. John Wooden. He coached UCLA for a great number of years. He's known as The Wizard of Westwood. And back in 1997, he authored a great book titled wooden, a lifetime of observations and reflections on and off the court. And as usual, let's go to the book for our mojo minute nugget of wisdom. Quote. When I was teaching basketball, I urged my players to try their hardest to improve on that very day, to make that practice a masterpiece. Too often we get distracted by what is outside of our control. You can't do anything about yesterday, the door to the past has been shut in the key thrown away, you can do nothing about tomorrow, it is yet to come. However, tomorrow is in large part determined by what you do today. So make today a masterpiece. You have control over that. This role is even more important in life than basketball, you have to apply yourself each day to become a little bit better. By applying yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day, over a period of time you will become a lot better. Only then you will be able to approach being the best you can be. It begins by trying to make each day count. And knowing you can never, never make up for a lost day. Unquote. 

Boy, isn't there's some wisdom there. That is so good. Make today a masterpiece. Become a little bit better today. And then get up tomorrow and try to become a little bit better. Tomorrow. Wooden continues to bring his mojo at the end of this chapter. Becoming a little better each and every day where he says quote, when you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. When you improve conditioning a little each day. Eventually you have a big improvement and conditioning. Not tomorrow, not the next day. But eventually a big gain is made. Don't look for the big one. Quick improvement, seek the small improvement one day at a time. That's the only way it happens. And when it happens, it last. Unquote. How about that? That is some very, very good stuff by the Wizard of Westwood. And that is the recipe for getting your mojo on and for living a flourishing life.

Just get a little bit better each and every day. Now, please allow me to share just one other small little point. You could say this is a bonus nugget of wisdom. John Wooden taught in drill deeply in the fundamentals of basketball, and his players would always talk about how great of a teacher he was in the fundamentals of basketball, but also in life. And here's one quick story. One quick story he shared from the book that is quite famous. Quote, I believe in the basics, attention to imperfection of tiny details that might commonly be overlooked. They may seem trivial, perhaps even laughable to those who don't understand, but they aren't. They are fundamental to your progress and basketball, business and life. They are the difference between champions in near champions. For example, at the first squad meeting, each season held two weeks before our first actual practice. I personally demonstrated how I wanted players to put their socks on each and every time. Carefully roll the socks down over the toes, ball of the foot, arch and around the heel. Then pull the sock up snug. So there will be no wrinkles of any kind, unquote. 

Now let me say having grown up playing basketball since I was old enough to dribble a ball and ultimately playing for my hometown, high school basketball team. I've spent more than one first practice with a newly minted coach that was inspired and pulls out the old John Wooden exercise from his coaching playbook for the first 30 minutes of the very first practice. And what do we do we practice putting on our socks and choose properly? And yes, I was even part of that junior varsity basketball team that was eye rolling to each other when coach had his back to us. And yes, I do get the moral of the story. If we don't practice the fundamentals, especially putting on your socks properly, you will get a blister and if you get a blister you will miss practice time. 

Yes, I get it. And missing practice time then your game time performance will suffer. Yes, yes, I get it, I get it. Now, however, the story is a little bit different when you play for disciplinarian coaches. And maybe maybe John Wooden was a disciplinarian. But I have played for some disciplinarian coaches. And let me share with you that whether you had a blister or not, you were playing. So the moral of my story was get your fundamentals right by putting on your socks properly. So your feet didn't bleed throughout practice. Because guess what, you weren't coming out of the game, or the practice whether you had a blister or not. Nevertheless, Coach Wooden had great commitment to the fundamentals. So in translating that to our lives, what are the great fundamentals of life? Quickly, let's run through some of those fundies we've covered in the past. Do you get enough sleep each and every night? Do you get some form of exercise daily? Do you practice some spiritual fundamental daily? Perhaps praying throughout the day at certain moments, perhaps some meditational technique? Have you developed some systems or processes? So you're reaching your goals daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.

 So in today's Mojo minute as we watch the first day of great basketball games in May March Madness. We should also think of what our fundamentals are like. What are our fundies? Like, write those down today. Make them official, like putting on your socks properly in the morning. And then let us practice getting better each and every day. If we do those two things, just those two things, the fundies and getting better each and every day, then I'm sure
we will glance over to the sideline. And Coach Wooden will be there. And as we play in this wonderful game of life, Coach Wooden will be cheering us on fist pumping the whole way. And most surely, he will be telling us keep practicing those fundamentals and keep getting better each and every day. Because that's the difference between being a champion and near champions. Enjoy today's games.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on