The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds. " -Henry Rollins
This is the last paragraph of an article he wrote for a magazine, If you’ve never read it, you should treat yourself. It is one of my favorite things anyone has ever written on the subject.
A paraphrased conversation after a UNC basketball practice in the early 1980s:
Roy Williams: You know Michael, you’re aren’t in high school anymore - things aren’t going to come as easy. You are going to have to work harder to get your minutes here.
Michael Jordan: I understand Coach. I will work just as hard as everybody else.
Roy Williams: Do you want to be like everybody else?
“The quality of an individual is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.”
-Ray Kroc
"I am the man responsible for who I am. When I look in the mirror each day, I stare my creator in the eyes. I am responsible for what I have and will become, I am accountable for what I will or will not accomplish. I believe in myself, I bow to no man and my only critic of any consequence has walked every mile of this journey in my size thirteens. "
-G. Diesel
A day off from work and reading this thread is getting me to post for the first time. I have a page from a Mens Health from a few years back full of quotes from some amazing coaches.
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but simply moving on with dignity despite that fear.” - Pat Riley
“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over again?” - John Wooden
“If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today” - Lou Holtz
“Today, you have 100 percent of your life left” - Tom Landry
“The superior man blames himself. The inferior man blames others.” - Don Shula
“Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.” - Fred Shero
“Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it’s because you’ve started to think of failure.” - Tommy Lasorda
“The key is not the will to win…everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.” - Bobby Knight
“Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.” - John Wooden
There are a few more but these really stood out to me. This is a page that i have kept throughout the years and reread every so often.
One day long ago when I was younger and feeling sorry for myself and my situation. I whined/ complained to my mom about it and she turned looked me dead in the eye and said:
Don’t waste my time telling me how big your storm is. You go out there and tell that storm how big your GOD is!
Any time I start feeling beat down I think of that moment. Of that 5’4" southern woman you do not want to mess with. I am the man I am because of her. Although she’d probably say she doesn’t need any of the credit, or the blame ; )
“if you have to tell someone how good you are, you ain’t that good”
“Growing up, I donâ??t know how many times I heard thisâ?¦ â??You are what you eat.â?? Fuck that shit. If that were true, Iâ??d be a cow. Yeah, a big fucking cow with an oatmeal tail, yams for horns, and eggs for hooves. What a fucking sight that would be.”