Success

Success is peace of mind that is the direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” - John Wooden

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John Wooden⁠

won 10 national championships as head coach for UCLA, including a record 7 in a row!! No other team in history has even won 4 in a row, for perspective. Coach also led UCLA to 88 straight victories, including 2 completely undefeated seasons. And, he’s adorable. His wife died around 25 years before him, and he visited her and wrote her a letter once a month until his health deteriorated. He’s one of the most admirable people you’ll ever learn about, and he’s arguably the best sports coach of all time.

I love this definition of success because it removes external factors and mandates personal accountability. No one else should be determining what you consider to be success other than yourself. In order to appropriately gauge your success, you need to get used to being very honest with yourself. A defensive, exasperated “I did all I could!” and a calm, collected “I did all I could.” feel much more distinct when you’re saying it to yourself after working towards a goal.

The definition assumes you are aiming to be your best, which is pretty dope. Shouldn’t we all be aiming to become the best that we are capable of becoming? Like, that just gets me pumped up to be honest. Whatever I do, I want to do it well. At least, I want to try to do my best. When you try your hardest to achieve something and it aligns with something you enjoy, I think you find long term success.

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In 2019 I really wanted to run a marathon so I spent several months training to run a sub 4 hour (about 9 min/mile) race, because I thought I was capable of achieving that time. About a month before the race, I learned about

ITBS⁠

when my knee started hurting around mile 16 of my final “long run” of my training. For the next couple of weeks, I foam rolled and stretched for at least 90 minutes a day, and tried to heal as quickly as possible. Two weeks before the race, I tried to run a few miles, and was sore for hours afterwards. I spent a week doing nothing but foam rolling and stretching, then ran a mile at about an 11 minute pace on the Monday before the race, and 3 miles at about a 12 minute space the Wednesday before the race.

Saturday (race day) comes around, I wake up at 3:45, foam roll for an hour, pop 1,000mg of ibuprofen, slap some Papa and Barkley on my leg, and head out. All of this morning preparation is a great example of how to

Put Yourself in A Position to Score⁠

I ended up cramping up and gimping my way through the last 5 miles, but I finished the marathon in 5 hours and 15 minutes. I consider it one of my greatest successes.

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DeShawn is Successful:

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