1. Complete the past
2. Create a future
3. Design and implement actions that fulfill on that future

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COMPLETING THE PAST

This is a process of acknowledging that “what happened, happened.” In other words, taking responsibility for the past. It is not about judging ourselves or others. It is a process of identifying any resentments and regrets that we are holding on to, and then forgiving the person we resent and forgiving ourselves for what we regret.

Forgiveness is “to give as before.” Before what? Before whatever happened, happened. Forgive does not mean forget. Forgive means I choose to no longer have an issue with what happened.

Completion is facilitated by addressing the facts, acknowledging what worked and didn’t work and leaving no loose ends. Completion is daily as well as lifetime. Completion provides a sense of accomplishment which leads to satisfaction. Without accomplishment and satisfaction life becomes a low-energy grind.

Knowing what I just said is only useful if you develop a habit of completing things. It takes the willingness to practice, which is true for anything we attempt to master.

CREATING A FUTURE

Creating a future is not simply figuring out what we want. To fully create a life we love takes an intention that is fueled by a context called “anything is possible.”  Too many times our thinking is “anything is possible except……….” We have placed a limitation on ourselves without, in many cases, realizing what we’ve done.

If the vision for your life is made with no limitation it will be a big enough game to play. It will be worthy of the commitment it will take. Without that commitment the vision can easily turn into a good idea gone bad.

Will the circumstances you face always support what you want to do? Absolutely not. Commitment is not about the circumstances. It is “I am committed, no matter what the circumstances.” The more you stick to your commitment, the more the circumstances will support you. It just won’t look like it sometimes.

TAKING ACTION

Ultimately, the only thing that makes any difference is the action we take. When you create a future and make a commitment to it you are able to stay on track by consistently taking actions that match who you say you are and what you say you’re up to.

Each action we take might not always be successful. It is our commitment to the future that has us get up, dust ourselves off and get back in the game. It is a process of learning and growing. Remember, you can have anything you are willing to commit to having. No excuses. No justifications for letting yourself out the backdoor.

If you haven’t had a chance yet, please check out my latest book, “The Art of Losing,” now available at Lulu.com.

Today is the anniversary of my birth. I feel that I have been fortunate to have been able to make a difference in thousands of people’s lives. This is a credit to them, not me. How big that difference is will be judged somewhere after I am gone, I suppose.

I do know this, It’s all I ever wanted to do. I figure that if anyone is fortunate enough to spend 50+ years doing something they love to do that is worthy of a fair-to middlin’ (my Dad’s favorite evaluation) report card. I have had that privilege.

The thing about that is none of it would have happened without the people I worked with being willing to do the heavy lifting. I just pointed them in a direction and maybe, gave them some tools they didn’t have before. There were also the people who influenced my life, especially those who had me see what influence a coach could have.

When I retired in 1986 from coaching basketball I did so to make a bigger difference. I felt that I could give coaches the tools that would allow them to squeeze every contribution they could our of their opportunity to coach.

People are not easy. Change is not that exciting to many. Helping them see what they really want and that they can actually have it is worth whatever it takes. I have been able to have many see that life does not have to be a struggle. I am not saying that life is easy. Wait a minute. Easy, hard, easy, struggle … do those all exist as part of life? That is up to you.

Life is an exercise in staying awake, of being aware. It is an opportunity to be at choice about the actions we take, rather than just reacting which is no choice at all.

Some of our reactions are useful and, they are limited. They prevent us from stopping to ask ourselves what else is available. Are we unknowingly limiting ourselves in what is really possible? Have we conceded to view which is unexamined and, therefore limiting?

I say that anything is possible. Are you thinking “anything but?” Are you clear about what you really want? Are you taking actions that lead you to where you want to go? Or, are you waiting for the “right” action at the “right” time?

When you are going for something big (like a life you love) the most difficult thing to do is begin. Too much waiting for the “right” time or the “right” circumstances. Just begin. The action moves things around so that you see things that were hidden from view until you started to move.

It is a little like what my Mom would do on the rare occasion that she had someone come in to do the cleaning. She spent the day before cleaning, because she didn’t want to be embarrassed by having a dirty house. Isn’t that why she was hiring that person?

There are no perfect plans. There is just a clear picture of where you are going and the commitment to get there. If you can think it, begin it. Now! Too much “getting ready to get ready.”

Coaches, go get your copy of Coach Todd’s latest book, “The Art of Losing” today at lulu.com. 

However, I see some effects from our constant use of email, texting and other advanced forms of communication. So I wonder. What is the effect on the quality of the relationships we are creating? Some say better, some say not so hot. I say that maybe you can reach more people. I question if that is sufficient to create the kinds of “no kidding, you can count on me” relationships that we all want and need.

What I just said is something we will only be able to judge further down the road. My real concern is that we are becoming sloppier by the moment in how we live our lives.

Before you get all up in arms about what I just said, let’s stop and take a look. Let’s start with email. Everywhere I work, I hear complaints about the volume of email that people have to deal with every day. I don’t think this will get any less over time.

I think the problem is using email to communicate our feelings and emotions in and about our relationships with family, friends, colleagues, etc. People say things they would never say, in person. If we don’t like what someone says we refuse to answer or make a sarcastic remark or some non sequitur that only the writer understands.

In relationships, there is nothing that can’t get worked out if we are willing to talk to each other. Too easy to “delete” the other person. Too easy to communicate something that we regret later on.

Having said what I have said, perhaps a lot of the problem is that we have jumped into the Internet world without training on the protocol or most effective uses of what we have available. Maybe it is just a work in progress. Only time will tell.

Here’s what really bothers me. Hiding behind our technology we have become sloppy in a variety of ways. Our communications are incomplete. We don’t spell. We don’t write in complete sentences. We assume the other person gets what we are saying and are upset if they don’t. We text in code and abbreviations. We have little attention to detail. This leads to sloppy and incomplete work on many occasions.

Excellence in any activity is not attainable without attention to detail. As far as I am concerned there is way too much just getting through stuff. Too much attention to speed and quantity. Little attention to quality. If I intend to give 100% to anything I do, it requires me to shoot for impeccable in my performance. Maybe we never really attain 100%, but that needs to be our intention when we tee it up each day.

Last thing. My personal pet peeve with “sloppy” is how we dress. We have much maligned our dress in the 70’s, but I’ll take bell bottoms and leather pants over what I see now. We started with dress-down Fridays to dress-down every days. How one presents himself/herself has a lot to do with what they think of themselves.

First impressions are automatic. They occur in the blink of an eye and they color a variety of subjects. Our perception of another person can be highly influenced and we may never realize how much. In my workshops confidence is a big conversation amongst athletes and coaches. Building confidence begins with how you present yourself to the world around you.

When I was a kid, my Mom used to take us kids to San Francisco for a little shopping. What I remember most was that the women I would see on the streets and in the stores were dressed up—hats, gloves and high heels. Classy is the word that comes to mind.

Learn more from Coach Todd in his latest book, “The Art of Losing” available at lulu.com.

Michael Lewis, in his best-seller, “Moneyball”makes this point—keep only the statistics that have an influence on winning. Baseball is a game that attracts “statistic junkies.” Too much time between actions leads to “MUS” (Making Up Shit). The great hitter, Ted Williams said it this way—Keep your eye on the seams of the ball. Now you are zeroed in.

So what are the seams of the ball in every day life? What are the elements of a foundation for effective performance? Please do not look at what I have to say like it’s the TRUTH. Try it on. Wear it around. See what you see.

In building anything, we need a solid foundation. What is it that allows us to perform at a high level when we clearly do see the “seams of the ball”? I think it goes something like this:

CERTAINTY—CLEAR PURPOSE + FULLY ACKNOWLEDGING ONE’S
CIRCUMSTANCES WITHOUT JUDGEMENT

APPROPRIATE ACTION—ACTIONS THAT CLEARLY FORWARD THE
FULFILLMENT OF THE PURPOSE

COMPLETION—COMPLETIONS OCCUR ALL ALONG THE WAY. IT’S
NOT JUST ABOUT THE END RESULT.

ACCOMPLISHMENT—EVEN THE SMALLEST STEP COMPLETED GIVES
A SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT

SATISFACTION—IF WE DON’T EXPERIENCE SATISFACTION ON A
REGULAR BASIS WE WILL LOSE INTEREST IN OUR
PURPOSE.

CERTAINTY—WE HAVEN’T JUST CIRCLED BACK TO WHERE WE WERE.
WE ARE AT THE NEXT LEVEL. WE’VE GROWN.
Let’s look at the seams of this ball.

Certainty—It’s simple. If you want to be insane or keep your team insane, keep them uncertain. People can handle bad news better than no news.

Appropriate Action—Be bold. Be decisive. Most of the time you need to move things around to be able to see what’s next.

Completions—even a baby step qualifies. What action was taken? What was the result? What did we learn? Who needs to be acknowledged for their contributions?

Accomplishment and Satisfaction—The rewards of being complete.

Now we are back to certainty and the beat goes on as we gather momentum. When you hit a roadblock, take a timeout to check where you are, then ask yourself, “What’s Missing?” Put that in and go again.

“The Art of Losing:, Coaching Athletics and Thriving in a Made-for-TV World” is Coach Todd’s latest book. You can find it on-line at lulu.com.

This is no longer true since television has dictated that the hosting arena have a football sized seating capacity. Lousy venue for watching basketball in my estimation. As a member of the NABC I used to have a very good seat every year. Now the coaches for the most part are relegated to Section X.

The NABC convention is an event of many stories. It is a place and time for celebration and sadness. It is a time when just-fired coaches are scrambling to find a job. It is a time when young, ambitious coaches are politicking to advance their careers. In the 25 years I coached basketball, I have been all of those at some point in time.

It has also become an event where Athletic Directors set up shop to interview all of their candidates to replace the coach they just fired. Or at least, trim down the number of candidates to a workable number. It is an environment of equal parts of stressing and unwinding. It is the hub of the culmination of a month that is now termed “March Madness.”

My first Final Four was in Portland, OR and played in the five year old Coliseum which seated about 11,000. It was later ot be my home court as coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. It still stands today next to the Rose Garden, the current home of the Blazers.

Sorry, I digress. Back to the Final Four. We had driven from San Jose, five coaching friends from San Jose to Portland. If we were a check at the bank we would have been stamped “insufficient funds”.

The participating teams were Wichita State University, Princeton University, University of Michigan and UCLA. I got to see Princeton great and Senator to be, Bill Bradley, torch Wichita State for 56 points. That’s a record that still stands for an NCAA playoff game. I swear he hit one of every kind of shot you could makeup and he sat out the last 4 minutes of the game. I got to see UCLA rip the Michigan Wolverines for 42 points on the way to a championship.

The coaches were a tight group. I think there were only about 900+ members (over 8,000 today) and some of them attended the first final in 1937, won by the “Tall Firs” of the University of Oregon. That one was held on a college campus.

I got to hang out, rub elbows if you will, with John Wooden, Pete Newell, Henry Iba, Adolph Rupp, Tex Winter, John Bennington, Clair Bee, Howard Hobson, Branch McCracken, Ned Wulk, Abe Lemons and Guy Lewis just to name a few. I found these coaches to be generous with their time and wisdom. I am not so sure that environment exists for young coaches today.

This weekend’s teams are representing the old-time elite. The University of Kentucky, Ohio State University, the University of Kansas and the University of Louisville. All those programs have had multiple dates at the “Big Dance.” The beat goes on. Any one of the coaches in the finals this year makes more money than all of the coaches mentioned above added together. That’s progress I guess. Or, maybe it just adds more pressure to a difficult job at best.

Get your copy of Coach Todd’s latest book for coaches,“The Art of Losing.”  Purchase it today at lulu.com.

Since no one is ever going to be in the future, what is all this fuss about the future? Or, maybe the fuss is justified? It is fairly simple. The future you create for yourself informs the present such that the actions you need to take today are clear.

If your future isn’t clear to you, the actions you need to take today that will allow you to achieve that future will be unclear. You will go through life waiting for something good to happen. Since we don’t know where we are going, what is the likelihood of seeing clearly the actions to take today? And, just as importantly, give those actions our best effort.

It is akin to driving your car with your foot on the accelerator and the brake pedal at the same time. Not very effective action and sometimes downright dangerous. It also takes away the velocity of performance and damages our ability to achieve. Have you been doing this so long you don’t notice anymore?

People tend to think that our actions are generated from our experience (the past). We might use something from the past, but what had us choose the action is that it fits the pathway to the future.

It IS simple. I didn’t say it was easy. If I don’t know where I am going, how can I figure out a game plan to get there? It is essential to figure out “what” you want before you start working on “how” to get there.

When I was 10 years old I said I was going to be a professional athlete and, after that, a coach. Do you think I knew what it would take to do that? I didn’t even know whether I would be a pro athlete in basketball or baseball. And, I was one of the smallest boys in my class. But, you see, I didn’t know any better. Also, no one around me ever said “No way, Jose.”

Now I didn’t know anything about the future ,or commitment or anything else for that matter. It just meant that I took actions every day to become a better athlete. As I was doing that, I began learning about what coaches do and what was important to being a good team. Fortunately, my experience in basketball supported that process. From the sixth grade until I finished community college I played on a championship team EVERY year. For you math majors that is nine years in a row.

In that process I went from a 5’7” senior in high school to a 6’1” sophomore in college. I continued to grow in college and eventually reached 6’4” and 195 lbs, and had the good fortune to play as a professional. Was I lucky that I had that huge growth spurt? Maybe so.

The thing about luck is you are only as lucky as you are prepared to take of advantage of it when it shows up in your life. I put in the time. I was prepared to have my dream become a reality. It was all the actions I had taken since I was 10.

It is never too late to create your future. Create a BIG future for yourself. Include all the bells and whistles. Don’t reduce the risk. Remember, anything is possible.

If you haven’t yet, go ahead and pick up your copy of Coach Todd’s latest book, “The Art of Losing” over at Lulu.com. Also, be sure to check out his other books, as together they will support your daily actions.

The game I am referring to was played between The CAL Bears and the University of South Florida Bulls. Sounds like we are on Wall Street talking about the stock market. Sorry, I digress.

USF is a member of the prestigious Big East Conference and CAL is a member of the newly expanded PAC 12. That’s the PAC 10 plus The University of Colorado and the University of Utah. In fact, the conference championship was won by newcomer, the University of Colorado. Only CAL and Colorado were selected to play in the playoffs.

What has happened? Where are UCLA, Stanford, Arizona, Washington, et al.? What has happened to a conference that regularly put at least four teams in the playoffs who had a strong opportunity to advance. The Conference recruits nationally and has California as a primary source of talent. Only Texas and Florida may be as fertile.

Back to the CAL vs. USF game. USF is a solid team but CAL was inept. They could barely force themselves to run up and down the court. CAL coach, Mike Montgomery, had “resignation” plastered on his face. This is a fine basketball coach. What gives here?

I think we must consider that we are seeing the result of complacency. It is most often what happens in stability. The PAC 12 formerly the PAC 10 had that stability. The members could and did compete in any sport with anyone in the country. It is probably still true with some sports but we’re talking basketball here.

I do not think there is a single action to take that would resolve this situation. Some will immediately advocate firing the coaches. And, that might happen in some cases. It is more likely going to be a unified marketing effort. Oh, you disagree?

Look around you. Everything is being marketed, everywhere. Each university and the collective efforts of the conference’s efforts need to be fine-tuned in their ability to tell their story.

The State of California is an example of complacency. It is no longer “the place to live.” At least that is the perception by many. Due to media coverage and time zones, the high school athlete is inundated with exposure to the East Coast.

These are just circumstances that are handy to justify the current state of affairs. The West has done a poor job of telling the West Coast story. Just as the institutions have done a poor job of marketing the values of staying in school rather than jumping to the pros. Thank you, Andrew Luck, for being the poster-child for finishing what you started.

Don’t forget to get your copy of Coach Todd’s latest book, “The Art of Losing” on line at lulu.com. A must read for any leader.

So what has us put the title of “great” on anyone? I think most people would say that they gave us great information or they had an interest in us as people. Maybe it was a unique approach to whatever was there to be learned. All of these could be true.

What if those who we have labeled great had no students? Well, of course they had students. So, what am I saying? What I am saying is that ultimately what has us say that they are great is due to a transformation that occurs, the breakthroughs caused and/or the results produced.

The master is only as great as the student. The mentor is only wise when the student takes action on the wisdom dispensed. Learning for the sake of learning really has minimal value. Without action it will be a faint memory. Life is not “Trivial Pursuit.”

So, what makes a great student? You are itching to ask. It is what I just said in the previous paragraph. A great student is one who is willing to take action on what gets revealed in the interaction with the coach.

Knowing and understanding are booby prizes in the domain of learning. Taking action without any assurance as to the outcome is the opportunity to learn, to grow. Listening to the coach and taking an action when there is a real chance you could fail is a huge opportunity no matter how it turns out.

On my 6th birthday my parents bought me a full-sized Schwinn bicycle, Since I was on the smallish side I needed to stand on something to get on my new prize. Which is what I immediately just had to do. The first few feet I wobbled, the straightened out and off I went.

My coach (Mom) said to me before I mounted up that if I fell, got to far from home, etc. it was up to me to be back by three which is when my friends were arriving for the party. And, no one was going to come looking for me. Her coaching, “keep pedaling.”

I was gone about 45 minutes (a guess) when an error in judgment caused me to have to stop and get off my bike. Low and behold, there was no place to stand so I could get back on. Consequently, I spent most of the return trip running and pushing my bike. I barely got home in time.

What did I learn? Be responsible for what I said I would do and number two, plan ahead. I have been practicing those ever since and I am getting better every day.

Get you copy of Coach Todd’s latest book, “The Art of Losing,” a must read for any leader. Check it out on lulu.com.

I fear that a word used in conversation 25 years ago that was considered weird or strange or cultish is being transformed into a cliché. Transformation is not an event. It is, also, not a result.

Did something happen? Yes, it did. Are you different? Not exactly. So, what happened? If transformation actually occurs the recipient can see something they could not see before, the seeing of which allows them to take actions that weren’t available even a few minutes before the unveiling occurred.

The biggest transformations seem to occur with our favorite subject—ourselves. Previous limitations that have been self-imposed seem to melt away or are just no longer a part of our view. If that happens for you, that makes for a great day or week.

What about a month or year from now? If you see transformation as an event you are likely to crash and burn thinking that you now have things figured out. Transformation merely opens the pathway to what’s possible in the life of a human being.

The trick is to stay on the path when the circumstances of life are determined to knock you off. I like to relate to the path as an intent to achieve mastery.

The intent to achieve mastery is a journey which, hopefully, never ends. If it ends, we  probably have given up on ourselves, the people around us and yes, life itself.

The path to mastery is the every day inquiries we make into the nature of being human and, of course, the actions we take as a result of the questions we ask. Seeking answers leaves us too often in a fixed way of operating in life. It limits our progress in seeking to master anything and can even stop us. The growth and development we experience is a result of what we discover in the actions we take.

Coaches, I think, are guilty many times of falling off their own path to mastery because they are so busy herding their athletes down their paths. The greater the progress of the coach, the greater the impact on the people they coach.

Forward your actions down the path of mastery. Get your copy of Coach Todd’s, “The Art of Losing” from Lulu.com today.

Remember, transformation today is tomorrow’s ego trip. It is a process, not a place to get to.

Having the model also limits the possibility of leaders being trained. Do we have an environment that encourages leadership? Are we making it okay to be a “leader-in-training?” Leadership can be learned. It can be learned only if it is acceptable to fail. Is it okay to take a risk?

If someone crashes and burns is the coach there to pick them up, dust them off and continue the game? The key element is risk. Taking on what you don’t know how to do. Learning from the failure and, most importantly, applying what you learned.

The model for leadership is a myth and it has looked something like this: (remember the myth unexamined has power in people’s automatic responses to the leader):

CHARISMA     TALL    MALE    WHITE    RICH    INTELLIGENT    EDUCATED

INSPIRING    HANDSOME    DISCIPLINED    DISTINGUISHED    CRAFTY

Before you attack, I know there are leaders who don’t necessarily have this package. What I am asking you to do is consider that our automatic reaction to who is and isn’t a leader is influenced by this model (e.g. No woman president, yet).

There will be “the naturals.” (e.g. Ronald Regan’s presentation on television fit the model very well and we know the result. His election had nothing to do with his political savvy.)

There just aren’t enough of them. Coaches are designated leaders with an opportunity to train new leaders. You must have an environment where it is safe to make mistakes. If not, who would want the job.

Be clear that everyone needs leadership skills even if it is being a leader in their own life. We would be well ahead of the game if just that much happened. Being consistent in doing what we know, regardless of the circumstances, is a high form of leadership.

American business suffers from the fact that there are too many people sitting around waiting for someone to tell them what to do. Many times it isn’t that they don’t know what to do, but that they are unwilling to take the responsibility to act.

It has been written, and I agree, that the most essential element in being an effective leader is pursuit. “Pursuit of what?”, you might be thinking. Pursuit of your vision. Pursuit of that which provides leverage in fulfilling your commitments. Pursuit of knowledge; not to store it for future reference but to put into action. Then what is left is to continue to practice. Maybe the chief pursuit is to have the life you really want, not the one you settled for.

Get on line at lulu.com or vervante.com to get your copy of The Art of Losing, Coach Todd’s latest book or one of his other books that will support you in your pursuits.