Nine Promises to Live By

One of my favorite times of the day is our family book study.  It’s a time of reading a leadership book from the TEAM LIFE Leadership system and sharing it with our kids.

We adopted book study into our family after spending time with Orrin and Laurie Woodward and sharing in the tradition with their family.  It has been a blessing in our lives since day one.

The blessing comes in watching our children as they learn to think.  After the passage is read, each child is asked to explain what he or she got out of the selection of the day with the focus of applying it to his or her life.  Oh the answers we’ve heard!  Sometimes they make our jaws drop in amazement and other times they make us bite our lip as we try to keep a straight face as the answers are, well.... creative!  It is priceless time and training.  

Presently we are reading John Wooden’s book, Wooden: A Lifetime of Lessons on and off The Court.   This book is packed with golden nuggets of leadership principles to live by.  I think the reason I  appreciate Wooden’s principles so much is they mirror those espoused by the leadership of TEAM LIFE.  Success principles are success principles, and Wooden is just another example of right principles achieve the right results: success!

Today’s reading was particularly good. The passage was called, Nine Promises That Can Bring Happiness.  Just the title alone makes one stop and think. Promises..... interesting choice of words.  From all I’ve read on John Wooden, I can’t imagine him as one to throw around words lightly.  That’s why the phrase: Promises that Can Bring Happiness, struck me.  After reading through them, I can see why he says that.  As I sat there this morning listening to Marc read, I let each roll around in my head.  

As I was thinking through the day, I examined my own life and asked the tough question, “How am I doing applying these in my life?”   I invite you to read them over and take time to do a little PDCA in your own life as well. I think it’s worth the time.

Nine Promises That Can Bring You Happiness, pg. 79

1. Promise yourself that you will talk health, happiness, and prosperity as often as possible.
2. Promise yourself to make all your friends know there is something in them that is special and that you value.
3. Promise to think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best of yourself and others.
4. Promise to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. 
5. Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
6. Promise to forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements in the future.
7. Promise to wear a cheerful appearance at all times and give every person you meet a smile.
8. Promise to give so much time to improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others. 
9. Promise to be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit trouble to press on you

Kristine