Quotes About Perseverance

If a player appeared to be taking it easy in practice, I told him, Don't think you can make up for it by working twice as hard tomorrow. If you have it within your power to work twice as hard, why aren't you doing it now?

there are no big things, only a logical accumulation of little things done at a very high standard of performance.

During the toughest challenges in my life I've come to most appreciate all Coach Wooden means to me. The things he would say—"Don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal, don't whine, don't complain, don't make excuses; worry about the things you can control, and not the things you can't"—were endless. Yet there is an appropriate one for every situation. The real

The heights by great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night." –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Work without joy is drudgery. Drudgery does not produce champions, nor does it produce great organizations.

It took me a long time to understand that even a stubborn mule responds to gentleness.

In game play it was always my philosophy that patience would win out. By that, I meant patience to follow our game plan. If we believed in it, we would wear the opposition down and would eventually get to them. If we broke away from our style, however, and played their style, we would be in trouble. And if we let our emotions, rather than our reason, command the game we would not function effectively.

I also believe that things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.

It's so easy to relax, to cut corners, to let down after you've reached your goal, and begin thinking you can just "turn it on" automatically, without proper preparation. It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you're there.

The teams that compete at the highest level love the thrill of the contest. They may have winning in their heads, but they have a love for the effort and struggle in their hearts.

I've always believed that hustle can make up for a lot of mistakes.

When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur... Don't look for the quick, big improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That's the only way it happens- and when it happens, it lasts.

The past cannot change what is to come. The work that you do each and every day is the only true way to improve and prepare yourself for what is to come. You cannot change the past, but you can influence the future by what you do today." —

Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.

You never fail if you know in your heart that you did the best of which you are capable. I did my best. That is all I could do. Are you going to make mistakes? Of course. But it is not failure if you make the full effort.

To my way of thinking, when you give your total effort—everything you have—the score can never make you a loser. And when you do less, it can't somehow magically turn you into a winner.

I had mistakes, plenty, but I had no failures

If you prepare properly, you may be outscored but you will never lose.

Even if we were big underdogs I always felt anything could happen. Often enough, I was right. That's also why I never assumed we were going to win.

How hard you work at correcting your faults reveals your character.

You will find that success and attention to details, the smallest details, usually go hand in hand, in basketball and elsewhere in your life.

Make the best of what you've got; play the cards you are dealt. Walt Disney once said, "There is no education like adversity." However, to gain this education you must be tough enough to overcome adversity rather than allowing adversity to overcome you.

You must define success as making the complete effort to maximize your ability, skills, and potential in whatever circumstances—good or bad—may exist.

Condition Your Team to Love the Struggle.