Blog Posts - Coach to Expect Success

What We Focus On Grows

7/21/2022

Amazing thought here that I got from John O'Leary and Matt Miller from a coaching session a couple of days ago - What You Focus On, Grows! I'm finally figuring out this important fact and I'm hopefully sharing it with some ideas and connections that you need to hear & think about too. Check out my podcast about this HERE.

I've known about this for many years - why I have not put more "stock" into this?? I guess I'm realizing how much of a slow learner I am. But, I am realizing how important it is to focus in on things that I want to choose instead of letting things happen to me where I don't have control. Sam Crowley says it all the time - "Where focus goes, energy flows!" I'm catching myself more often when I start going down a negative rabbit hole & I'm working on stopping myself from going further along with figuring why I'm going there and what the lessons are that I need to learn from that "detour." There is never to late of a time to pick up "new" skills like this. I'm also figuring out how important it is to have little victories in my life - every day that I can do little things, the right way, is one way to build a better life.

We All Need Mental Toughness

7/17/2022

Found a great resource about being more mentally tough - and it's free. Ben Newman - "The Burn Podcast" show, has some powerful guests sharing messages about being mentally through throughout life. So many lessons will be shared with this. To check it out and to sign up - again, it's free, go to: https://mentaltoughnessforum.com/ It's August 2 - 6, 2022. I'm doing more and more things that I know will be good for me & this is one of them. Again, I'm not getting paid for doing this "sharing", I just think it's good stuff.

So much of life is making adjustments in conjunction with not giving up. I think having more examples, more stories about what people go through in life - can benefit us. We can pick up different lessons that we can use in our lives. The only thing that is the same for every human being throughout all of time - we ALL have challenges to overcome. Seeing that is true, we can certainly learn from others for sure. The key is being willing to not only share our stories, but also always look to keep getting better. That way our stories can always look to help more people. Self Improvement and Personal Development go way beyond just helping ourselves. Our journey helps others, even if we don't know it at the time.

I hope you are able to check some if not all of this out.

A recent podcast that I did brings up some of these lessons too. Listen to it HERE.

Courageous Leadership

7/15/2022

Found something that really connected with me from John Maxwell and I hope it connects with you too. The top 10 list here on some thoughts on Courageous Leadership, I think, is something that can help all of us. Even if it's just one of the ten things he shares here. Try them. I did a podcast on this topic as it was really got me thinking about some things that are currently going on for me. Replay this one to make sure you get some notes on this list. You can find it HERE.

This list has inspired me to have little "wins" every day. In making even the smallest choices - at times it might seem as not a big deal type of decision - I know if I pile up enough little wins, things will continue to get better for me. Like I've brought up before... the better days I have now will not only bring me a better future, but it helps me to create a stronger past - a past that I can keep learning from and growing from. Amazing that it's taken me this long to learn this. But, I'm so happy I've connected with it AND, I know I need to be reminded about just about every day.

See the images below from the Kindle App that I have John Maxwell's "Daily Reader":

We All Get Squeezed ...

7/4/2022

Another quick, but great lesson to share with you from Alan Stein Jr's. book, "Sustain Your Game" - and it actually comes from Dr. Wayne Dyer. It's all about what's inside of us. Dr. D asks a question to a group of people - what happens when you squeeze an orange? We get squeezed all throughout life - what comes out of us when we do feel that pressure, etc.

That's something we all can easily answer - at least for ourselves. It's something to take a look at and reflect about too... the earlier the better. It's something I've been trying to do more of lately and try to be conscious of when I get squeezed by life and by people. I'm trying to catch the bad stuff coming out and fixing my responses. Those are the things that I can actually change and control. It's not the stuff coming at me from outside sources, that's for sure.

It reminds me of the great game of basketball. Usually we always want to have our game plan go inside - out. Meaning... getting the ball inside to try and score. Inside meaning to our tall players - post players - where the % is higher for taking shots closer to the basket. Then, as defenses start sagging into the middle to help, the outside opens up for clear shots.

If we look to live our lives from an inside - outside point of view... controlling what we can control.. our actions, our thoughts, our responses, our efforts, our attitudes, etc. If we also can remember that the outside stuff are things we can't control & maybe choose to get not squeezed too hard by those things, that's where we can make a difference in our lives. Easy?? Not usually. Doable? Yep. Something I will continue to work on for sure.

Little Acts of Kindness Matter

6/13/2022

Listening to my buddy John O'Leary this morning on my way in to school on his podcast and it sure got me thinking about a few things. He shares this wonderful story about a guy that he recently met and this man shared a remarkable story of kindness that made such a difference with him. The little things that we all can do, sure do mean a lot to others & it could be those little things that go on to create so much good will, love, kindness, encouragement, calmness, positive energy, etc., that goes onto affect so many others. I will admit, I got a bit emotional listening to this short podcast (right around 5 minutes in length).

It helped to change my mood as I started my day off and it's still sitting with me as I know I need to listen to it for a third and maybe even a fourth time. The little acts of kindness that we can show to others along with to ourselves too, can make such a difference in life. I was just reminded of this from a great picture I saw:

If we are able to set more examples... again, of little things that can make such a difference... it will be so much more valuable than flapping our gums with our opinions ... or better yet, with our keyboards posting our opinions to social media; we all can change the world little bits along the way with more small actions of kindness, empathy, encouragement, etc.

Check it out for yourself - this powerful & emotional podcast from my friend and now yours, John O'Leary (click the picture below)

What is Attitude.. With Some Help From John Maxwell

6/7/2022

I found a great reminder about the importance of our attitude & I wanted to share it with you. This came from "The Daily Reader" from Dr. John Maxwell. This is something that I have on my Kindle app on my phone and I try to start out each day before I leave my house, along with a few sips of morning coffee. It gets my day going in a great direction.

Here is the entry from April 27:

Attitude is something that shows up in all aspects of our lives, from our words and actions to even our body language and non-verbal expressions. Many times people like to try and mask those negative attitudes and try and get people to buy the fake positive ones. The problem is, those fake ones usually get found out - eventually by others, but right away from ourselves. We can only fake ourselves out for so long.

One of the biggest truths for attitude is that it is either our "best friend or our worst enemy". The key for this one is that its totally up to us to decide which one of the two it will be. It is also our "librarian of our past", and it is also the "speaker of our present." The biggest one of all is that it is the "prophet of our future." That is something we can't get away from. It's a guarantee for sure that they will show up, even if we don't want to admit any of these parts. The sooner we connect to these points - the better off we will be.

Coach Kara Lawson - Lessons for Life & Some Hoops

4/26/2022

Three videos I shared with my Leadership class recently - all great messages from Kara Lawson - the Head Women's Basketball Coach at Duke University. I have followed her career from long ago when she was in college at the University of Tennessee, playing in the WNBA for 13 years, an assistant coach with the Boston Celtics, along with being a member of USA Women's Basketball too. A wonderful student of the game and of life, where is looking to make a difference with people wherever she goes.

One of the lessons I picked up from her was her tremendous love and respect she had for her college coach, Pat Summit. She was full of gratitude for the tough lessons, love, encouragement, etc., that she got from her coach in her formative years of 18-22. That got her life going in such a positive direction where she can still point back to those years as being formative for her success. She's 41 now and leading one of the top programs in the country.

She brought up the point about networking and how important it is all throughout life. She's been connected with some big-time names from U of Tenn., USA Basketball, The Olympics, ESPN, The Boston Celtics, etc. She knows how to work with others along with getting them to be their best in whatever is going on. Being a connector to people is a skill worth working on - all throughout life.

I loved how she hit upon the fact about following up on your passions in life. Going after those things that fire you up. Enjoying what you do in life does mean it will all be easy, but things will be worth getting up for and going after, no matter what. Coach Lawson brought up to always find a way to keep getting better in all that we do, to keep impacting others along with helping others to be their best. Sounds like a good play for life that she has drawn up on her board.

Here are the videos:
Kara Lawson Continues to Add to an Already Impressive Resume as Duke Head Basketball Coach

Kara Lawson: Commit to Each Other

Kara Lawson: Confidence Comes from Within

A Little Humor Goes A Long Way

3/28/2022

Humor is one of the many fantastic reminders for our Positivity Project Character Terms that always offer some great perspective. I've been working at making sure I keep some of that around with me along with gratitude. The things that John O'Leary is doing sure do help with both of these.

In John's podcast #284 found HERE, he interviews Trey Kennedy all about the importance of humor in our lives along with the fact that there are so many benefits from adding more humor into our days. In the times that we are in now, with Covid, politics, the economy, war overseas, etc., we need a little distraction to help us cope & to learn some valuable lessons from too.

Trey and John help us to remember to not take ourselves too seriously - which is one of many things that I am trying to work on all the time. Instead of beating myself up when I make a mistake, I'm learning to laugh a bit more along with looking for the lessons in my mistakes, where not only I can learn and get better... but to also stop making that mistake too. I think you will like this episode that John O'Leary shares with us. I also know that you can find tons of helpful podcasts, blog posts, vlog posts, etc., on his site that will bring you so much joy and learning too. Feel free to explore his other episodes and other items on his site.

Success & Failure - Both Don't Last Forever

2/9/2022

My friend Coach Ray puts these quotes out all the time & this one (like the others) are full of great lessons for me and anyone else that wants to take them in. It's a great reminder that both successes and failures, don't last... but they do affect our futures for sure. I find myself looking back to yesterday even, and there were good things that happened yesterday for sure. I look to continue those good things today. But to do that, my actions, choices, decisions, etc., need to be aligned with those things.

Just as there were some not-so-good things that happened yesterday, I want to learn the lessons from that hopefully to not have my actions, choices, decisions, etc., give me those same results. Again, it's tied into one of the best pieces of advice that I've ever found - and I share it often... "our past is our best mentor."

I also love that part of it where it reminds us that we "must pay the toll" of what success is. Sometimes it's paid in the failures we go through & the struggles that are usually associated with them. We can turn those into "currency" in order for us to use them on better times in our future. Again, things like this are always great reminders for us to take with us throughout our days.

Here Are A Few Things NOT To Stay Away From

12/13/2021

I found a powerful show from Alan Stein Jr. and his "Raise Your Game" podcast where in episode 1 from season 11, he interviews Brian Kight. Listen to it HERE. There are so many valuable things that he shares with Alan on his podcast & I wanted to share just a few powerful things that I picked up on.

Brian brings up that life is simple in counterintuitive ways. Some great connections to what life gives us:

Life is harder when we try to avoid hard things.
Life is scarier when we try to avoid scary things.
Life is more uncomfortable when we try and avoid uncomfortable things.
Life is more painful when we try and avoid painful things.
Life is more full of problems when we try and avoid problems.

Knowing that life is not supposed to be absent of problems, Brian shares some thoughts on why not go after the things in our life that mean something to us. In other words, he goes after things knowing that the rough times in life - we can choose many of them in the areas that we want them in. That way we are not having pain in our life, all in areas that don't mean anything to us. Thereby, not "wasting" it in areas that don't matter to us. There are plenty of tough moments in life for us to deal with having things more difficult, more scary, more uncomfortable, more painful, and more problems - if we are spending our time going after our dreams and goals... and these tough times hit us during these pursuits, it's a bit better to take them on.

Now remember, I'm not saying that we need to create more of these challenges. Life will throw us enough of those for sure. We just need to be able to get through life's tough moments as we are going after things that motivate us & give us reasons "why" to work hard to overcome them.

Listen to my thoughts on this topic HERE (and a few others) from my Motivation Monday Game Plan - from Dec. 13, 2021.