Today is the only day that matters; it’s the only day you can
do anything about. Make each day your masterpiece.
The past will never change; anything that happened will never
change. The future is yet to be; you’ve just got to concentrate
on today and if you do that the future will take care of itself.
That doesn’t mean you’re going to win because maybe you’re
not good enough to win, but you’ll come closer to realizing your
own potential.
I love poetry and many of my players know that and many write
me poems. One, Swen Nater, has written me over 100 poems. He has
written a poem on almost every maxim I’ve used and all the
Blocks of my Pyramid and one that he wrote was titled
Today:
Coach, you’re a hunter and a seeker,
Not for silver or for gold.
Not for treasure or for pleasure,
Or for anything that’s sold.
You’re a connoisseur of living,
As you move along life’s way.
With no worries of tomorrow,
For you have found today.
You’ll never know a thing you didn’t learn from someone
in the past, yes, you learn from the past but it’s not going to
affect what you do today — tomorrow will be affected by what you
do today. Do what you can today. Don’t put it off, do it today.
I tried to use that philosophy with my players, to try to
just become a little better each day. That’s what I taught —
today is the only day you can do anything about — you can’t just
say it, you’ve got to do it, you’ve got to repeat it —
repetition is one of the laws of learning and must be used over
and over.
