Posts Tagged ‘success.’

Lessons from Coach John Wooden

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

One of the greatest coaches of all time died this week at ninety nine years old. Coach John Wooden was considered by many to be one of the greatest college basketball coaches who ever lived.  His basketball teams at U.C.L.A. won a record ten national championships, including seven in a row. Most importantly, those who knew Coach Wooden considered him to be a person of high principles and a person who deeply cared for others. He taught his players not only how to play basketball, but how to live successful and fulfilling lives that matter.

Coach Wooden emphasized the importance of:

  • Teamwork
  • Unselfishness
  • Becoming your best
  • Working on the basics or fundamentals
  • Physical and mental conditioning
  • Moderation and balance
  • Doing the best you can in the present moment
  • Moving towards your goals step by step

Coach Wooden’s philosophy of success was not to try to be better than others, but to try to be your best.  He did not talk with his players about winning and losing games. He did ask them to keep improving and to work towards becoming the best they could be. Coach taught his players not to do anything that would destroy their peace of mind. He emphasized the importance of maintaining an emotional balance and not being too elated or dejected by winning and losing games.

Each of us can apply his lessons to our own lives because they are about living up to our potential and becoming good human beings and professionals. In closing, the great coach put it this way, “If you make the effort to do the best of what you are capable, trying to improve the situation that exists for you, I think that is success.”

Copyright 2010. Raymond Gerson

Best regards,

Raymond Gerson

Copyright/Reprint Info – The contents of this article may be copied, reproduced, or freely distributed for all nonprofit purposes without the consent of the author as long as the author’s name and contact information are included.

Credit Statement Example: Reproduced with permission from Raymond Gerson at www.achievecollegesuccess.com.  Copyright 2010. Raymond Gerson. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Intrinsic Motivation for Maximum Performance

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

I recently read a fascinating book titled, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink. The book is based on years of scientific research which demonstrates the importance of intrinsic motivation (from within) versus extrinsic motivation (carrot and stick or from without).

According to the research, intrinsic motivation consists of autonomy, mastery and purpose. The research indicates that high performance, creativity and job satisfaction comes from the need to direct our own lives, to develop our abilities and talents and to live a life of purpose and one that we feel really matters.

Most schools and businesses use rewards and punishment (extrinsic) as their primary means of motivation. Pink points out that external motivation works some of the time for routine tasks that require one solution and which can be accomplished by repeatedly following the same set of instructions. Extrinsic motivation does not work as well for more complex and creative tasks and jobs that have many possible solutions. The problem is that most of the jobs being created in the 21st century are more complex and there are many pathways that can be taken to achieve results.

Reading Pink’s book raised the question in my mind, “How can we help students and ourselves to regain the love of learning and insatiable curiosity that we all had as children?” We had a natural love and excitement for learning as children and this motivation came more from within than from without. How can we regain this intrinsic motivation (if lost) and turn our work into play?

As an educator I have been experimenting with giving students more autonomy and opportunities to work on projects which they feel passionate about. For example, one of my students was willing to receive a failing grade on an assigned paper because he was not interested in the topic I chose. So I gave him the option of choosing another subject (as long as it was related to the course) and then he was to propose his choice of topics to me for approval. Quickly he returned to see me and presented an appropriate topic that he wanted to write about.

Pink’s book provides resources and links to schools and businesses that are finding ways to be a catalyst for intrinsically motivated students and employees. The book also provides suggestions for implementing a variety of ideas which are supported by the scientific research that Pink discussed.

If you are interested in how to get the best out of yourself and others, this book is probably one that you would enjoy reading.

Copyright 2010. Raymond Gerson

Best regards,

Raymond Gerson

Copyright/Reprint Info – The contents of this article may be copied, reproduced, or freely distributed for all nonprofit purposes without the consent of the author as long as the author’s name and contact information are included.

Credit Statement Example: Reproduced with permission from Raymond Gerson at www.achievecollegesuccess.com. Copyright 2010. Raymond Gerson. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Make the Difficult Easy

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

How can you make the difficult easy? How can you make your big tasks smaller and underwhelming?

Lao Tzu, the Chinese sage and author of the Tao The Ching answers the questions above by saying, “Difficult things of the world can only be tackled when they are easy. Big things of the world can only be achieved by attending to their small beginnings.”

So it is wise to make every task seem effortless, avoid unnecessary struggle, and then achieve your objective easily. Treat everything as potentially difficult, but accomplish it in the easier stages.

Let’s look at examples. Say you have a five page paper due in two weeks. If you start working on the paper early and do a little each day it will be completed ahead of time without stress and strain. On the other hand, if you wait until the night before the paper is due you will make the task difficult and most likely will be feeling a lot of stress.

When I first started thinking about writing my book, Achieve College Success…Learn How in 20 Hours or Less, I faced the resistance of my inner critic. The negative voice inside my head said, “This will take too much time. It will be difficult. I won’t have time to enjoy my summer off from teaching.” I countered this negative resistance by replying, “I will take one small step at a time and it will get done without strain. Then I asked myself, “What is one small step that I can use to get started?” I answered this question by deciding to brainstorm a two page Table of Contents which included the topics I wanted to cover in the book. Next I wrote a two page introduction and so on. You could write a 182 page book in one year by writing a half page a day. This is what Lao Tzu means when he says, “Sow the great in the small.”

So if you tackle your challenging tasks, goals, and activities before they become problematic, you will meet with few difficulties and can achieve more with less effort. Try this with one of your goals and let me know how it goes.

Copyright 2009. Raymond Gerson

Best regards,

Raymond Gerson

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Take the Game Winning Shot

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Take the Game Winning Shot (Part 1)

After missing thousands of shots in his career, a former basketball player admitted that he also lost hundreds of games and missed 26 game winning shots. Does this player sound like a loser and failure? Can you guess this basketball player’s name?

He is Michael Jordon, one of the greatest to ever play the game. Today he is remembered for his success on the court and not for the shots he missed.

The road to success includes failures, mistakes, and “missed shots.” None of us are perfect, but we can keep improving through our efforts. What if Michael Jordon had given up the game of basketball because of missed shots? What a loss that would have been for him, for his fans, and for the game of basketball. Fortunately he did not quit and went all out giving his very best effort day after day.

When you take a lot of shots or make many attempts to achieve your goals, you will miss the target from time to time. And it is also likely that you will sink some baskets, accumulate points, and win at the game of life.

Go for your dreams in the same way that Michael Jordon shot at the basket and pursued the game of basketball. Take your shots without concern about whether or not you miss your target now and then. Use your mistakes and so called “failures” as feedback for your improvement. Don’t give up easily on yourself or on your goals. If you want something enough it is worth working for with your whole heart.

Copyright 2009. Raymond Gerson

Best regards,

Raymond Gerson

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Focused Attention is a Key to Success

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

One of the secrets of successful people is their ability to focus on the task at hand. Concentrated attention is the key to achievement in sports, school, relationships, and in your career.

Concentrated attention is similar to the power of focusing the rays of the sun through a magnifying glass on to a piece of paper. It burns a hole through the paper because the sun’s rays are magnified. Similarly, you can magnify your results with concentrated attention.

Make a list of your priorities for each day. Tackle these tasks which you identified as important one-by-one. Treat each task that you are doing as the most important activity of the day. This will help you to be totally present in the here and now. Do each activity with enjoyment and enthusiasm if possible. If you are unable to be enthusiastic, at least do the activity with your attention until you have completed the task or reach an appropriate stopping point. Then scratch it off of your to-do list (if it is unfinished add it to tomorrow’s list) and approach your next priority in the same way. This may not sound cool in this age of multi-tasking, but it will give you excellent results.

Be like a scientist and try this approach of focusing your attention on one task at a time as an experiment to see if it works for you. I think that you will be pleased with the results.

Copyright 2009. Raymond Gerson

Best regards,

Raymond Gerson

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Giving Life Your Best

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

“Full effort is full victory.” These were the words of Mahatma Gandhi whose efforts freed India from British rule.

Achieving your worthy goals is good, but failure to reach a goal does not necessarily mean your effort was in vain. Gandhi is saying that you will be a winner in the game of life if you give your best effort regardless of the outcome.

Who you become due to your effort is more important than what you get from it. Did your effort towards a goal make you a better human being? Did giving the best of yourself build strong character? Did you learn anything worthwhile that will help you and others? If you answered “yes” to these questions then you are victorious.

Knowing in your heart that you gave full effort will bring you a certain peace of mind and satisfaction. This is not to say that you should not desire a successful outcome. However, if you concern yourself with the effort, the results are likely to occur. If your focus is on learning, growing and improving you will get better at anything you do. On the other hand, if you try to avoid failure and mistakes or strive for perfection, you will limit your own growth opportunities. People who fear failure often avoid the very challenges that could stretch them to new heights.

You can approach your education as a journey and opportunity to learn and improve yourself. Or you can only concern yourself with grades and then miss out on many learning opportunities. If you work hard and focus on learning, your grades are likely to get better as a result. Students who are overly concerned with grades and with avoiding mistakes or failure often bypass hard courses and challenging opportunities which could have provided great learning experiences. They hold back, play it safe and don’t give their best so they can say, “I didn’t really try.” Others look at so called failures and mistakes as feedback for their self-improvement and they make a full effort for the learning experience.

Give yourself credit for making an all out effort and value the learning, growth and improvement even its small. Give the best of yourself regardless of the outcome and you will be a winner in the game of life.

Copyright 2009. Raymond Gerson

All the best,

Raymond Gerson

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Michael Jackson, Celebrity, Talent and Self-Image

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

Michael Jackson’s life combined great success and talent with tragedy, loneliness, and a need for numerous plastic surgeries. Someone asked me to write a blog about this. I don’t want to comment on any particular personality or celebrity, but will make a few remarks regarding self-image, celebrity and success in general.

Fame is not a substitute for love. And talent alone will not make us happy if we have a poor self-image. Fans of celebrities sometimes project back to them the image or picture they see. This image may be very different from who the celebrity actually is as a person. Without a good sense of self the celebrity might even think that he or she is like the picture that the fans have in mind.

Enormous success, talent and fame can be difficult to handle without a positive and healthy self-image. Without a strong and positive self-picture celebrities might feel that they are not enough and then try to disprove it by pushing hard for perfection. It is beneficial to improve ourselves, but being driven to perfection can create a state of unhappiness, discontent and feelings of unworthiness.

Our society places a high value on outer trappings of success- money, fame, power, talent and appearance. It might seem to some people that these outer trappings would bring happiness and positive self-regard. And yet we have all witnessed celebrities and others who have “it all” and still do not feel good about themselves. They may actually be very lonely among thousands of fans, unhappy with who they are offstage, and push for perfection instead of enjoying realistic self-improvement.

For some people, no matter what they do or achieve it will never feel like enough. This is usually due to a poor self-image and a feeling of “I am not good enough as I am.” This can translate into a feeling of “I am not worthy of love and a truly successful and fulfilling life.”

Enormous outer success does not in and of itself help us to conquer our inner demons. I mentioned in a couple of other blogs on self-image that each of us must learn to manage our inner critic. Our life is meant to be a heroes’ journey and each of us must become like brave warriors who slay our inner dragons.

By embracing and accepting both our strengths and weaknesses we can make peace with ourselves. We can continue to improve without expecting to become perfect. This is a true form of success which can bring the happiness we are all seeking. Albert Schweitzer put it like this, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.”

Cpyright 2009. Raymond Gerson

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