Success is peace of mind
12/11/02

Written by: Dragan Blazevic

Almost every winning coach argues that you cannot have a successful team without having the same common goals. What are these common goals? Is setting goals to win X amount of games the answer? On the surface you would think so, however, as I set about exploring this question the name Coach John Wooden kept surfacing

What Coach Wooden first stated in 1934 as he began his coaching career was "success is peace of mind that is the direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming." This often quote goal was the result of his parents influence and combining his keen observational eye.

Here is my take on the dilemma. Coach Wooden saw this "satisfaction" at doing your best as the ultimate goal. He felt that in doing your best, the results produced wins on a consistent basis. It also produced a peace of mind knowing even that if you lost, you had done your best without leaving a hollow feeling knowing somewhere you may have won, but under-performed. If you go back over the years and observe many of the Worlds greatest performers, they were all driven to be the best. Michael Jordan may have been one of basketball's greatest examples ever of this mentality. Michael helped the Chicago Bulls win 6 NBA Championship rings, yet I do not ever recall him playing a game that lacked that tremendous intensity and desire to perform to the best of his ability. To me that is the most amazing thing about Michael Jordan. He may have been (and probably still is) one of the world's greatest competitors.

Now, it's obvious you can win without doing your best. The problem with setting "wins" as a goal, is that focus on "winning" alone can lead to complacency. Soon there is deterioration of skills or concentration and "kaboom" suddenly you're on a losing streak. The person who sets "striving to do their best to become the best you are capable of becoming" establishes a pattern of practice, work, and game performance that leaves little room for "losses" to crop up.

The self-satisfaction that Coach Wooden talks about uses "internal" rather than "external" motivators to provide the fuel to reach a level of success and continue going beyond. If you use external motivators (such as uniforms, trophy's, wins, approval from the fans) as the resource for success the problem arises when those external's are not available or withdrawn. There are certain external tools that can be used (such as statistics) which can be assist tools to enhance a player's dormant internal motivation. Coach Brian Smith of the Parramatta Eels uses these type's of motivators to stimulate and ignite a player's internal motivation. The toughest part at the Pro level is to maintain intensity and work ethic every day in and out during a 30 game plus, pre-, regular, and post- seasons.

Coach Smith uses tools such as comparing your performances in all statistical categories from this week to last, and this week this year to the same week last year. He may also compare you in different statistical categories to players around the league at the same time, with the same comparable playing time. Now essentially Coach Smith is simply trying to visually make clear to a player that if they are striving to do their best they should be able to improve on their previous performance. Anyone knows that the higher you go in the game the more difficult it becomes to improve because all skills have a learning ceiling. Player's at these higher levels have high motivational levels which keep them pushing the ceiling. However other external's such as satisfaction with money, not enough playing time, desire to be the offensive show, rather than the player a team needs to win, can rapidly pull a player off track of "being the best they can be".

So what does this mean? I think goal setting is extremely important. Goals provide players an illuminating light to clearly see why they are busting their tails when no one is watching, and when they are discouraged and not playing well. Goals are a frame of reference to keep the train on track.

If you are not achieving your goals, then a coach and their players should sit together and see if the pre-established goals and attached action plans are being fulfilled to the best of their ability. An action plan is simply the physical step and practice you take to improve and reach a goal. Action plans should be very specific.

I think there are values in both perspectives in terms of goal setting. I believe Coach Wooden's philosophical goal is what you might term an ultimate goal. If every individual were so internally motivated and clear to this objective you would not need external motivators. As I mentioned earlier, the greatest athletes and competitors are this way. They are internally motivated. No one needs to tell them to practice or strive on any given day.

However in reality, many of today's athletes are lacking in this internal drive and motivation. They tend to need "goal training wheels" so to speak. If that is the case, I think you can set a comprehensive philosophical goal such as Coach Wooden's, and then fill in the blanks with other smaller and more specific steps along the way. I personally used offensive and defensive goal boards with as many as 20 different categories to show my team where we were achieving and under performing. As those season went along, winning was important but they became more and more driven to fill in all the team goals along the way. That was for them how they judged our teams performances, which by the way resulted in a Championship. I think that is really what Brian Smith attempts to do with his players.

If your team focuses more on performance goals, and you on igniting their internal motivation, you will not have to worry about posting a certain number of wins. In fact if their internal motivation is strong enough, these players will carry you beyond what anyone thought they were capable of becoming. Hmmmm....which as Coach Wooden described produces that "success which is peace of mind that is the direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming." Use Coach Wooden's goal or something like it as your "team motto". Then consider using various other motivators to lift up the players who for whatever reason were not born or have not learned this successful approach to life.

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