Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court

Beating Yourself

The very worst thing you can do is to beat yourself. By that I mean not function to your level of competency because you didn’t put out your full effort in all ways.

Maybe you stayed out too late last night. Maybe you were too concerned with individual statistics. Maybe you thought you could just “turn it on” without proper preparation. Maybe you did some other things that were counterproductive, like being impatient.

In other words, you beat yourself. The other guy didn’t have to beat you. Now you’ve got something worth being ashamed of.