The PGC Blog

How you handle adversity is completely up to you. Not your teammate. Not your brother. Not your sister. Not mom or dad but you.You will have set backs. Things will not go your way but failure is a part of success and you have complete control over the habits you have and build into your tool belt to handle that adversity.

If you want to instruct in a way that is really going to help your basketball team, you need to instruct before the bad thing happens, before the play takes place. In basketball, this opportunity—or failure—happens frequently.

Welcoming unfairness is one of the most useful principles in the life of any athlete. Champions don’t want to be put on an equal plane with others, they welcome the opportunity to show what they are made of under all sorts of conditions.

Part Two of How to Evaluate Yourself. Stemming from the need for a standard of personal excellence, I offer a citizenship test or “State of the Person” report card. In brief, here are twenty-one categories or subjects in which I think each person should strive to get an A. In my opinion, all A’s in these would qualify a person to think of himself as approaching excellence as a person in the same way Michael Jordan approached excellence as a basketball player. How do you measure up?

How to Evaluation Yourself: Part One. Stemming from the need for a standard of personal excellence, I offer a citizenship test or “State of the Person” report card. In brief, here are twenty-one categories or subjects in which I think each person should strive to get an A. How do you measure up?

Matt Dyment was a basketball player at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. He is also one of the finest leaders I have ever seen on and off a basketball court. I offer some examples of Matt’s leadership as a yardstick so you can measure your own efforts by comparison.

We, humans, should be most appreciative of our thumbs.  They are pretty super little tools and they help us do things that most other species can’t achieve: jump rope, have thumb wars, and let’s not forget maybe the most important – playing Super Mario Kart. (Man, I miss those red turtle shells!)

A leader must always look for possibilities and opportunities and never give in to complaining or worrying about conditions or circumstances. Then always look for ways to turn things around, and never sink into self-pity or get discouraged.