​Legendary Georgia Women's Gymnastics coach Suzanne Yoculan led her teams The Georgia Gym Dogs to ten National Championships. Coach Yoculan did everything in her program at a championship level, including mentoring.
 
In her book, Perfect 10 with Bill Donaldson, Coach Yoculan wrote about her: "Fifteen Points of Pride for a Winning Program". Coach Yoculan described Points of Pride for mentoring and being a role model as follows:
 
"Community: Contributing more than a fair share to the communities of UGA, Athens, and Georgia is essential to be a Georgia Gym Dog. Participating in car washes to raise money, assisting Habitat for Humanity and similar activities are contributions to the community and we do them, but these are things any student can do.
 
Finding an activity that takes advantage of unique characteristics of athletes can be more meaningful. Young girls consider college gymnasts celebrities. Interaction between gymnasts and young girls, especially troubled or underprivileged young girls, can have a profound positive influence on the youngsters.
 
The Gym Dogs participate in the Athens-Clarke County Mentoring program, in which they are paired with young girls who need help in developing self-esteem or who need to know that someone who is highly regarded takes a special interest in them. The program is rewarding to both parties in the pair, providing opportunities to interact with young girls in a manner not normally available to gymnasts who have been so busy training prior to college.
 
Image: Coaches and gymnasts are role models for thousands of youngsters. Always keep this responsibility in mind and live up to it. Being a positive role model is essential in the mentoring program, and because of their popularity, college gymnasts are almost constantly under the microscope of public scrutiny. Accepting the responsibility for setting proper examples is a maturing experience."
 
In addition to both having won 10 National Championships, Coach Wooden, like Coach Yoculan made clear in his annual letter to the team what he expected out of them as role models:
 
"Remember that you represent others who are responsible for you as well as yourself and your personal appearance and conduct should not reflect discredit in any way upon yourself or upon those whom you represent. Cleanliness, neatness of appearance, and good manners are qualities that should be characteristic of those who are of great influence on young people and you certainly qualify for that category. Be a good example."
 
We all in some way can provide a good model to our youth each day.
 
Who will you influence today? How?

​Legendary Georgia Women's Gymnastics coach Suzanne Yoculan and Coach Wooden both won 10 NCAA championships. Both coaches were similar in their approach to goal setting which was a key to their consistent excellence.
 
Coach Wooden described his approach this way: "There is a tendency at times to set goals that are so idealistic that they are unattainable and thus become counterproductive. Goals should be difficult, but in the realm of possibility. My goal was to step up the quality of our effort, preparation, and execution and to strive to get closer and closer to full competency without worrying about the score."
 
Former player, the late great Dave Meyers, described Coach Wooden's approach: "Coach Wooden never limited himself by thinking about what's possible. He focused on the "right now" and was more involved with the better than the best. Let's get better, not worried about if it makes us best."
 
Coach Wooden set no limit on the performance level of his teams because he knew they could always improve, and he insisted that they did. Coach and his assistants built a master calendar before any practices started for the entire pre-season. The coaches calendared when every play, defensive concept/technique or new drill would be added and how much time would be allotted. Every element of their basketball system was accounted for in their incremental goal setting.
 
In her book, Perfect 10 with Bill Donaldson, Coach Yoculan described her approach to goal setting:
 
"You must establish goals for the athlete that go beyond any achievements she has attained in the past. Setting goals is motivating for the gymnast provided you lay out the intermediate steps for achieving the ultimate goals. These must all be clearly defined. Then motivation results from the melding of the desire, determination, and effort with the vision of pride and fulfillment of achieving the goals.
 
Every year, one of our team goals is to win the NCA.A National Championship, but because that goal is far away from the beginning of the season, we set other specific team goals that may be even more challenging initially. In gymnastics, individual goals are just as important as team goals. They include developing new and more challenging skills and improving consistency and execution. All our goals were precisely defined, and their achievement can be measured objectively and quantitatively. Most important, we focused on goals that we can control. You motivate by helping athletes achieve their goals."
 
Coach Yoculan and Coach Wooden both set difficult but achievable goals. A clear precise detailed incremental plan was defined and in both cases the achievement of the defined goals was within the control of the participants. External influences would neither help nor hurt goal achievementt, thus the goals were motivating not frustrating.
 
What are the defined fundamentals of your goal setting process? Do they frustrate or motivate the participants?

Suzanne Yoculan was the head coach of the women's gymnastics program at the University of Georgia from 1983 to 2009. Coach Yoculan's teams won 10 NCAA championships. They had four undefeated seasons,7 National Championships in her last 11 seasons and a run of 5 consecutive national championships during her final 5 seasons.
 
Coach Yoculan built great teams year after year. She was able to unite great individual high-performance athletes with their own personal goals into Championship Teams. In her book, Perfect 10 with Bill Donaldson, Coach Yoculan recounted her approach:
 
"We believe that the happier the athlete is, the better she's going to do. I like to accommodate the individual needs of the girls. We always say we're a team of individuals first, and that if we meet the individual needs of the girls and work on leadership skills at the same time, then we will develop a TEAM.
 
I don't like to be a real controlling coach when it comes to the little things; I want to give our athletes information and then allow them to make choices. In general, I treat them as individuals. It's important to me that I respect their individual needs. All gymnasts are different. We build our team chemistry by getting to know each other and developing a mutual respect for those differences.
 
I believe you must assure every team member that you are inter¬ested in her as a person as well as a gymnast and that you believe that she can reach the goals agreed on. Students have a life other than gymnastics. It is important that their worries and concerns be addressed, and that coaches play the appropriate role in deciding what is best for the gymnast. What is best for the gymnasts is best for the team.
 
The physical and mental welfare of student-athletes must take priority over all other considerations. Strength and conditioning are the keys to good performance and longevity in gymnastics. Learn what works and apply it, always giving the gymnast's wellbeing top priority."
 
Coach Yoculan's gymnasts knew she would not sacrifice their well being for her own personal interests. She was the boss who you knew would be genuinely happy if you got a job with a different company if it was better for your family. Trust between the Coach and team members is the starting point for all team building. Susan Yoculan would get an A+ in trust from her gymnasts.
 
What grade would your team members give you?

Suzanne Yoculan was the head coach of the women's gymnastics program at the University of Georgia from 1983 to 2009. Coach Yoculan's teams (the Gym Dogs) won 10 NCAA championships, including a run of 5 consecutive national championships during her final 5 seasons.
 
Coach Yoculan' s teams had four undefeated seasons and her 7 National Championships in her last 11 seasons reminds me of Coach Wooden's championship run at the end of his career. Coach Yoculan and Coach Wooden had many championship habits in common. One of them was their communication and philosophy on winning. In her book, Perfect 10 with Bill Donaldson, she described her approach:
 
"Andy Landers, coach of the UGA women's basketball team, told me once about his team philosophy: "We don't have expectations, we have intentions."
 
I thought a lot about that, as I have always believed people only do what's expected of them. But it makes sense: expectations can feel like pressure, but intentions come from within, and intentions can drive an individual or team to succeed.
 
Every time we compete, we intend to win! "You must always want to win," I tell my team, "but winning's not the only thing.
 
"Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing," has been attributed thousands of times to Vince Lombardi, but Bartlett's Familiar Quotations attributes it to coach Red Sanders of Vanderbilt University (in 1953). The legendary Green Bay Packers quarterback, Bart Starr, commented on Lombardi's philosophy about winning: "Winning to Lombardi was not everything, nor the only thing. He was more interested in seeing us make the effort to do our best. If we did, he knew that winning would probably take care of itself." I follow the same philosophy.
 
Coach Yoculan and Coach Wooden were both able to produce multiple consecutive National Championships with different groups of athletes in high pressure single elimination, winner take all formats. To be sure, both Coaches had terrific athletes (No Coach can coach no talent but not every Coach can coach talent.)
 
The championship habit Coach Yoculan and Wooden both applied was to recognize that their athletes had an intense desire to win and redirected that desire to focusing on their best effort and away from the expectations of others. This approach created an intense but relaxed mentality that allowed for peak performance in the most competitive situations.
 
The Coach or Sales Manager who constantly clamors about the need to win the game, beat the other team or hit the number creates more tension for the elite competitor and the coach becomes another obstacle to overcome. Coaches Yoculan, Wooden and Lombardi have shown what real championship habits look like.
 
Are you an obstacle or a builder of championship habits?

Suzanne Yoculan was the head coach of the women's gymnastics program at the University of Georgia from 1983 to 2009. Coach Yoculan's teams (the Gym Dogs) won 10 NCAA championships. They had four undefeated seasons,7 National Championships in her last 11 seasons and a run of 5 consecutive national championships during her final 5 seasons.
 
Coach Yoculan is one of the winningest coaches in the history of college athletics, however one of the most powerful lessons she taught was how to deal with "not winning" in a very powerful way. In 1997 her team was an overwhelming favorite to win the NCAA championship but fell short. In her book, Perfect 10 with Bill Donaldson, Coach Yoculan recounted how she handled the situation:
 
"I don't like to use the words "loss" or "failure" because nothing is a total failure. It's a "partial success." So how do you deal with the disappointment of not fully attaining your goal?
 
Let me relate the experience we had at the 1997 NCAA National Championship, which we entered as the overwhelming favorite. During the season we attained the highest regular season average in the history of NCAA women's gymnastics.
 
But on the first event in the Super Six, the balance beam, three Gym Dogs fell from the apparatus, counting two falls and digging a hole that would be impossible to climb out of. So, what do you do in a situation like this?
 
First, you must erase the past from your mind by concentrating on the future. You can't do anything about the past. Then you must concentrate on every skill, every routine, and every event, in that order. And we did it! We won each of the other three events. That is as good as we could have done. We came in third, 0.55 points behind the champion, UCLA.
 
And how do you deal with the loss? First, put yourself in the place of the winner. How would you like to be treated if you won? Remember the Golden Rule. Would you like the other team to demonstrate sour grapes?
 
So, I told the team in 1997 that as soon as it was evident who won, they should take off running as fast as they could toward the winning team's place on the floor and congratulate them enthusiastically. We gave the meet away, but we didn't give away our class and good sportsmanship. We could at least win the sportsmanship contest, which is important. As soon as it was determined who won the national championship, I took off across the floor first, with the team right behind me, to congratulate UCLA."
 
What do you do when it is apparent you will lose? What's your mindset? How do you treat the winner?
 

None of us are finished products. The notion of aging and retirement is an illusion that hijacks the mind to become complacent in living instead of eager to keep experiencing the magnificent beauty of life lessons. Each day is a unique opportunity to defy the negative inner voices in our heads. I am still a work in progress. We will never have it all figure it, but we can wake up each day with an enthusiasm that is so positive and contagious while striving to get 1% better in some facet of our life.

We must first acknowledge as well as heal the mental and emotional barriers that hinder us from cultivating the life we envision for ourselves. Spend time developing a personal and professional strategy to break free from the confines of your comfort zone. Ask yourself when the last time you took on a challenge that seemed impossible?

Our dreams cannot wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow might never come. Today is the perfect time to take action on a growth opportunity you have been postponing. Move one step forward with intent towards where you want to be tomorrow. We must stop waiting, daydreaming, and just going through the motions of life. Live fully while being kind to yourself and a positive difference-maker to those you come in contact with. Time is too precious to waste it on anything that does not contribute to your holistic growth.

The moment you take a risk, you have succeeded. And the moment you venture closer to who you authentically are, you have transformed. Discipline yourself and mind every day to do all tasks with a level of excellence and attention to detail. You can't grow and reach the outer limits of who you are if you don't play and put yourself wholeheartedly in the game of life. If you never start, you can never finish. 

Understand to be great is to be misunderstood. Hate never finds solutions. Only love does that. Let kindness do your work for you while not taking other's opinions personally. Live immediately and in alignment with your moral compass because there is no sadder way to die than to have never lived!
​

As the Gymnastics Coach at UCLA from 1991 to 2019 Valerie Kondos Field, often referred to as Miss Val, coached the Bruins to seven National Championships.
 
In 1991 UCLA offered their head gymnastics coaching position to a dancer/choreographer who had never done gymnastics: Miss Val. With no formal "coaching experience" Miss Val quickly began studying how to be a "coach". In her must-read book Life Is Short, Don't Wait to Dance, Miss Val describes the process:
 
"I got busy studying successful coaches. In my mind a coach was tough-minded, tough-talking, unwavering, intimidating, and had a dictator-like swagger. I assumed the posture of a relentless intimidating coach and learned to say things like "Go hard or go home" and "Winners make adjustments and losers make excuses."
 
The team finished dead last my first year at the NCAA championships. I became more hard-nosed. I demanded more of our team, learned more cutting quips, implemented sarcasm as a real stinger, and did my best to be unrelenting, unwavering, and "right" always. After my second season we were horrible and getting worse. We failed to even make it to the national championships. That was it. I decided to resign.
 
I was walking through the UCLA Student Union on my way to resign when I spotted one of John Wooden's books, "They Call Me Coach." I had never thought to study Coach Wooden. I picked up the book and the first page I opened to was Coach Wooden's definition of success: "Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of Self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the Best you are capable of becoming."
 
I read it again. Each time I read it, the word "you" kept getting bigger and bolder and brighter. I finally got it. I realized I had been trying to be someone else. And I also realized that whenever you try to be someone else you will always be a second rate them and worse, you will never become a first rate you. With one sentence Coach Wooden humanized the process of sport for me and lifted the burden of outcome.
 
I thought, "What is it that I can bring to this job that is worthwhile, authentic, and inspiring?" At that moment, right when I was on my way to quit, I realized I could do the job, and do it well. In fact, the art of preparing young women to be calm and confident before they compete is something I knew I could do as well as any other gymnastics coach. I just needed to block out all the coaching "noise." I needed to start listening to my own voice and make the best decisions I could one day at a time, one step at a time, one choice at a time."
 
Are you doing the best version of you?

​As the Gymnastics Coach at UCLA from 1991 to 2019 Valerie Kondos Field, often referred to as Miss Val, coached the Bruins to seven National Championships.
 
In her must-read book Life Is Short, Don't Wait to Dance, Miss Val provides a great method to develop new habits:
 
"How do you improve yourself through the inspiration of others while still being true to you? I learned to embrace a shift in my mindset to "Act As If".  Most of us already have a story we're living by, but it's unconscious. When you "Act As If",  you take control and make your story conscious, even if you don't feel it's your default mode at that moment. "Acting As If" is a powerful tool that can put you in a position to gain experience and knowledge until you no longer need to act and instead can simply be.
 
I first incorporated this philosophy when I was 18 years old, dancing and struggling with finding the perfect diet, when I made the decision to stop thinking of myself as an overweight dancer who needed to lose weight. Instead, I started to think of myself as a lean, fit, "heath nut."
 
It was remarkable how quickly my habits changed from sneaking chips and overeating to only eating when I was hungry and then only eating healthy food. Part of what helped me was to observe the habits of people I felt were really fit. I found that they ate slowly; they weren't obsessed with food when it was around; and they never finished a meal. I followed their lead and gave myself a consistent internal reminder to "Act As If" I was a health nut. It worked.
 
Here are a few of my "Act As If" buttons that, even today, I find myself constantly pushing to reboot:
 
I act as if I'm super healthy. For me, this means eating clean and exercising at least a few times per week.
 
I act as if I'm organized. I need a refresh and reboot on this one a lot, sometimes multiple times a day. At home, it helps that Bobby is super organized and tidy. That makes my mess an eyesore and an unavoidable reminder of the need to change my default of being a slob. Even if I only put a few things away each day, at least I'm doing something to "Act As If" I'm organized.
 
I act as if I'm a morning person. This means planning my life, so I get up early and get going, even on the weekends. This helps prevent me from feeling lethargic during the week when I do have to get up early. I also refuse to allow myself to say anything negative about "having" to getting up early. Instead, I have gotten in the habit of waking up and thinking, "Yay, I get another day."
 
What new habit do you want to try the "Act As If" approach on?
 

As the Gymnastics Coach at UCLA from 1991 to 2019 Valerie Kondos Field, often referred to as Miss Val, coached the Bruins to seven National Championships.
 
Miss Val's book Life Is Short, Don't Wait to Dance is a must read for everybody.
 
A key part of Miss Val's positive approach to life is that she looks at every situation with the best possible perspective: "I get to…". Miss Val took this approach when she successfully battled breast cancer. In her book, Miss Val expands on the topic:
 
"It was the spring of 2014 and I was driving home after a day of errands. My phone rang and I picked it up. It was my doctor. She told me to pull the car over to the side of the road. She said, "Your tests have come back positive. You have breast cancer."
 
I hung up the phone and at that moment I heard a voice from the universe—God—say, "Be anxious for nothing and grateful for all things."
 
Be anxious for nothing! My life has been forever changed! Rather than being engulfed in the fear and darkness of cancer, I was being commanded to not be anxious or fearful and instead to choose gratitude. But I didn't know how I was supposed to do this.
 
When I met with my oncologist, she said, "If you choose to, you're going to go through a year of chemo and surgery, but you'll be fine."
 
Be anxious for nothing. At that moment I got it. I knew exactly how I wasn't going to be anxious. I understood the proverbial equation. The way to not be anxious was by living each moment in gratitude. I realized that anxiety and gratitude can't coexist in the brain. That being the case, I had to choose… I chose gratitude.
 
I don't have to get chemotherapy. I get to have chemo. It was a choice. My choice.
 
I get to breathe. I get to work. I get to dance. I get to hug my girls, and my family, and my grandchildren, and strangers! I get to put gas in my car because, yay, I have a car to put gas in. I get to wake up early to prepare for work because, yay, I have a job.
 
This one revelation, "I get to…" changed my outlook on everything I think about and do every day. I discovered an invaluable new cue to my life. When I acknowledge that everything I do in life is a choice, I realize that the best decision I can make in any situation begins with gratitude. Gratitude is 100 percent choice. Gratitude isn't something I hope I could have, it's a deliberate effort in how I feel."
 
Miss Val beat breast cancer.

So did my wife...