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Pregame Speech (January 2003)Thoughts, stories, examples and ideas on challenging your team to perform at their highest level possible.
JUST
FOR TEENS: MICHAEL JORDAN IN THE MIRROR FOCUS. Train your mind to concentrate upon the essentials and discard the frivolous and unimportant. PASSION & ENERGY. Enthusiasm is one of the greatest emotions. Without it there is no achievement. With it, a new idea can win over an old idea. HARD WORK. If you want to leave your footprints on the sands of time, you'd better wear work shoes. PERSEVERANCE. Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races on after another. RESPONSIBILITY. "Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility...In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility." INFLUENCE. The greatest of motivational principles is: People do what people see. As adults we are still playing Follow the Leader. COMPETING AND WINNING. Winners expect to win in advance. Life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. TEAMWORK. People support what they help create. LEADERSHIP. Good leadership should do more than attract followers. It should produce more leaders. RESPECT, TRUST, LOYATLTY. There's only one thing finer than a friend you can trust, and that's one who trusts you. CHARACTER. We all want character, but not the trials that produce it. You can't build character in a cocoon.
TEN THINGS COLLEGE COACHES LOOK FOR IN A BASKETBALL PLAYER 1) A player who always gives 100% effort. 2) A player who is positive and enthusiastic with his teammates. 3) A player who loves to play defense. 4) A player who dives on the floor for loose balls. 5) A player who is always on time for practices and team meetings. 6) A player who loves to rebound. 7) A player who passes up bad shots and only takes good shots. 8) A player who uses his dribble for a purpose. 9) A player who can make free throws. 10) A player who treats others with respect.
QUOTES
on Goals "The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score." Bill Copeland "If you have a goal in life that takes a lot of energy, that requires a lot of work, that incurs a great deal of interest and that is a challenge to you, you will always look forward to waking up to see what the new day brings." Susan Polis Schultz "I learned that if you want to make it bad enough, no matter how bad it is, you can make it." Gale Sayers "In achieving your goals, you may run into roadblocks. Don't let that stop you, go around, over, or under. If you are committed to your goal you will find a way." Catherine Pulsifer Attitude
is Everything! When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a natural motivator. If an employee at our communications company was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Michael and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ...you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or...I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life. "Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes, it is," Michael said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life." I reflected on what Michael said. Soon thereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw Michael about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon to be born daughter," Michael replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or ...I could choose to die. I chose to live." "Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked. Michael continued, "...The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read "he's a dead man. I knew I needed to take action." "What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Michael. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. "Yes, I replied." The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, "Gravity." Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead." Michael
lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude.
I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Anonymous
WHY The principle: If you have a big enough "WHY", you will always discover the "HOW". Last year, Oprah Winfrey interview a man named Randy Leamer. Randy's young daughter was going to die unless she received a new kindey. Randy was eager to give one of his, but the doctors refused to let him because he was so overweight. But they gave him eight months to lose 100 pounds. He lost the weight and even said that it wasn't that difficult to do because he had a tremendous incentive - to save his daughter's life. In other words, as soon as he had a big enough "why", he discovered the "how". WHEN YOUR "WHY" GETS BIGGER, YOU GET BETTER One day a journalist happened upon a work site. He noticed three bricklayers and asked each of them what they were doing. The first man, who was working apathetically, said, "What do you think I am doing? I'm laying bricks." The second man, who was a little more involved in his work, responded, "I am building a wall." But the third man, who was totally absorbed, replied, "I'm building a cathedral for the Lord!" WHEN YOUR "WHY" GETS BIGGER, YOU GET BETTER Question: What is your why??? Making the team, getting playing time or helping your team win a championship WHEN YOUR "WHY" GETS BIGGER, YOU GET BETTER |
