Page 67 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

day your masterpiece,” Wooden knew something profound: Life is now. Life is

not later on. And the more we hypnotize ourselves into thinking we have all the
time in the world to do what we want to do, the more we sleepwalk past life’s
finest opportunities. Self-motivation flows from the importance we attach to
today.

John Wooden was the most successful college basketball coach of all time.
His UCLA teams won 10 national championships in a 12-year time span.
Wooden created a major portion of his coaching and living philosophy from one
thought—a single sentence passed on to him by his father when Wooden was a
little boy—“Make each day your masterpiece.”

While other coaches would try to gear their players toward important games
in the future, Wooden always focused on today. His practice sessions at UCLA
were every bit as important as any championship game. In his philosophy, there

was no reason not to make today the proudest day of your life. There was no
reason not to play as hard in practice as you do in a game. He wanted every
player to go to bed each night thinking, “Today I was at my best.”

Most of us, however, don’t want it to be this way. If someone asks us if
today can be used as a model to judge our entire life by, we would shriek, “On
no! It isn’t one of my better days. Give me a year or two and I’ll live a day, I’m
certain of it, that you can use to represent my life.”

The key to personal transformation is in your willingness to do very tiny
things—but to do them today.

Transformation is not an all-or-nothing game, it’s a work in progress. A little
touch here and there is what makes your day (and, therefore, your life) great.
Today is a microcosm of your entire life. It is your whole life in miniature. You
were “born” when you woke up, and you’ll “die” when you go to sleep. It was
designed this way so that you could live your whole life in a day.

48. Enjoy all your problems

Every solution has a problem. You can’t have one without the other. So why
do we say that we hate problems? Why do we claim to want a hassle-free
existence? When someone is emotionally sick, why do we say, “He’s got
problems”?