Super Soul Studies – Wooden

I am a student at heart. I love to learn and spend all of my free-time reading, writing and when I watch TV or videos it is often to learn. My favorites to watch are Super Soul Sunday (SSS) on OWN and TED Talks. My other faves are Dateline, 48 Hours, 20/20, Nightline and First 48. If I had to choose a different career than the one I am in it is safe to say I would be a Homicide Detective. (Gary likes to remind me that based on me being freaked out by the dead I would likely SUCK at this career. So now I am pushing Brendan to be an M.E. and so far it’s working, he took one semester of Forensics!!! Fingers-crossed – Brendan D. Kiel, Phd, Medical Examiner. Hahahahahahaha)

Okay back to my love of learning…that was a heck of a segue!

I only watch SSS and TED when I am fully attentive and engaged. I take notes and have years and years of Google Docs where I like to highlight those quotes, thoughts or theories that connect with me. I am going to share with you some of my favorites every week hoping that I can inspire in you a curiosity to learn or explore your own soul.

Today I chose one that is easy to get behind. John Wooden was the head basketball coach at UCLA. He won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period and is known for his short, simple inspirational messages. I had the privilege of hearing him speak during an event I attended years ago. He had me “hook, line and sinker” then and watching this SSS episode confirmed for me that he is worth following. Here are the notes I connected with:

• These three things are all that you have control over:
  • Never try to be better than someone else
  • Always learn from others
  • Never cease to be the best you can be
• Your reputation is what you are perceived to be and your character is who you really are
• Rules – Never be late, be neat and clean, not one word of profanity, never criticize a teammate (The Coach gets paid to do it, you don’t)
• The pyramid of success – Google it
• Things will work out as they should providing we do what we should
• The road ahead or the road behind – Moriarty 
• Don’t whine, don’t complain, don’t make excuses
• Never mention winning, you can lose when you out score and you can win when you are out scored
• The journey is better than the end – Cervantes

The meme at the top of the blog tonight sums up how I take on life and certainly how I have been forced to live the last year of my life. Let’s revisit…

Things turn out best for the people that make the best of the way things turn out- John Wooden

I didn’t ask nor did I expect what has happened in the last year. Losing my mother destroyed me but I had to find the silver lining and that was when I took an inventory of our relationship it could not have been more perfect. People would say when learning that my mother was dying of cancer “say everything you ever wanted to say to her” and to that I would respond “there is nothing left to say.” The most honest relationship in my life was the one with my mom, there were no regrets, there was never forgiveness required it was the purest form of love I will ever know. I heard a quote From David Brooks recently that said “I loved her more than evolution required” and man, does that cover it!

I also didn’t ask to go through seven months of the greatest health scare I have known to date and 5 procedures later and 13 total abdominal incisions later (I am TRULY a Miami Gangster…or at least my abdomen is!) I am still standing. I am not running, not even walking but dang it I am here, I am smiling and through it all I have learned many more lessons. Many more than I thought I needed to learn, many more than I wanted to learn…but I am better because of the journey.

I am still a student at heart with a few more lessons under my belt. Learned from Super Soul Sunday’s, TED Talks and a lot of life experiences sprinkled in. The biggest lesson I have learned in the last year is that all of these hours spent soul searching, learning and being inspired by the true masters were filling a toolbox that I had no idea I would desperately need to access. It was that toolbox that allowed me to breathe her last breath with her and to survive this health crisis with fewer emotional scars than physical.

I conclude today by reminding you to make the best of it, whatever it is, and fill your toolbox NOW before you need the tools so when the day comes, when you need to make the best of it, you have the ability to NAIL IT! L.