John Wooden was the winningest coach in basketball with 10 NCAA National Championships in 12 years while at UCLA, said he had to create his own definition for what success was.

He looked in many dictionaries. He read what they said, and they all sounded right but didn’t quite fit for what he wanted to do.

He said his definition is, “Success is giving all you’ve got, every time, so you can be the best you that you can be”. He said that he taught his players that every shot counts, every time, whether in practice or a game, alone or with others, every single shot counts. Don’t get lazy, don’t be unfocused. Every single time, shoot it as if it is the game winning shot!

When he was coaching these young men, he said he would get great players. He would select well to bring good players on to his team. They were at the top of their game for their ages. Were they all the best? No, but they were good, and some of them were probably the best ever.

He also said, “What I did was get a young person who was really good at free throws and I would have him practice shooting free throws every day. He’d do his regular workout, and on top of that he would shoot an additional one or two hundred free throws a day.”

“He’d come to me and say, ‘Coach, I already shoot pretty well, why do I have to shoot more?’”

And I’d tell him, “Because when you are in the heat of the moment, you’ve been running hard for the entire game, and there’s one foul shot left to make, and you’re at the line—I want you to have shot so many shots that no matter what kind of state you’re in, no matter how tired you are, no matter how you’ve been playing. that you can do this in the clutch. That every time in the heat of the moment, you have automatic play!”

He’d have another person who was really good at rebounding, and he would have him practice rebound, after rebound, after rebound until the person felt like his legs were going to fall off because he couldn’t jump any more. But through this process of repetition of the fundamentals, he won 10 NCAA Championships in a 12 year period!

Coach Wooden went on said, Your reputation is what you’re perceived to be, but your character is what you really are deep down inside. When you’re practicing those fundamentals, when you’re making sure that every single shot, every single move, every single jump is as good as you can make it, that is character. You’ve got to be the best you that you can be. It’s a choice. You get and you become whatever you are focused on most.”

Work the fundamentals until you are absolutely stunning. So by doing that over, and over, and over, and over, Coach Wooden built these powerhouse teams that were absolutely unstoppable. Was it because he had all of the best players? No, but each one of them was really good at the fundamentals and at their own skill sets.

This is the key to your own personal achievement. Do the success skillsets over and over until they are a no brainer, and you become unstoppable.

Best to You, Dr. Larry

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