After seeing a few inspirational quotes around a friend’s room, I decided to take them down and turn them into a few printouts. Hope you find one that pushes you forward.
photo credit: Michael Schrader
A Little Inspiration: Five 8.5×11 Printouts
Motivationals
Make It Rain Like a Champion Today
John Wooden’s Nine Promises to Happiness
They’re pretty simple but often forgotten. Make each person’s day a little brighter, look forward to new opportunities, and challenge yourself to take a positive viewpoint in everything you do.
Feel free to print this inspirational and keep it as a reminder. For a full size version, click here.
If you like this and want more Wooden quotes, check out his book, Wooden: A lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court.
The Small Wins Motivational: Adding Up All Those Inches
It was an 8th grade football practice, and the coach was known for yelling. Okay, not yelling, just “being loud to get his point across.” He also happened to be my dad.
“What wins ball games???”
Clueless or dumb or afraid of the former college noseguard, us under-200-pound kids had no answer that was going to be right enough.
“IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS!” he belted.
Some call it attention to detail. Others would differ that it’s attaining as close to perfection as you can. Maybe you’d call it doing the little things right. Discipline. Say what you will, small wins are the key to the big win, whether in sports or in life.
Even in our everyday lives, no matter you’re a teacher, a business man, a designer, a doctor, whatever, an attention to detail creates a situation where all the little things add up into a big thing. Big problems are made up of little confrontations that you must choose to win, or to let pass and lose. Sometimes we want to let a little bump in the road pass, that we’re tired and just want to skip it and move forward.
When we reach that point, it is then that we have lost sight of our goals, our aspirations, the sum of all those little things adding up. When you hit that bump in the road, recall the goals you’ve set (based on what motivates you, but that’s probably another post) to get you over that hump. Continuously revisit those goals for motivation to do the little things right.
Remember the next time you have a little nagging task keeping you from making the day your own that accomplishing it will eventually add up to a victory.
Cat in the Hat: It’s Time to Get Busy, Gentlemen.
Let’s take a look at the progression to get to the finished inspirational cat in a hat picture. First, I found a picture of hard working men during the ’30s
and searched for a newsboy cap
while incoincidentally finding a cat in such a newsboy cap. Naturally, I saw a connection
to mix them all together.
Inspiring, I know. Just makes you wanna get up and beat that recession, don’t it?
Believe in Yourself Motivational Quote
This one was inspired by the quote “The only opinion about yourself that matters is your own.” When the dice aren’t always in your favor, it gets that much tougher to have that on-top-of-the-world self-confidence you had when things were going great. But really, aren’t you the same person you were before a tough stretch?
I made this 3.5″ x 5″ self-motivational as a constant reminder that the only opinion really mattering is your own. Everything else is icing on the cake.
To Gen Y: Happy Singles’ Awareness Day
Being in the Gen Y “generation me,” I sometimes catch myself thinking about myself more than I should. Today is a perfect example. Today is Valentine’s Day, and last night I found myself calling it “singles awareness day” because that’s how it directly appealed to me. Then again, with the economy preventing more people from marriages and gender studies proclaiming men are incapable of settling down til their 30s, it’s really no surprise this came to my mind.
BUT, today isn’t about being single. It’s not even about being in a relationship, or being married. Today is about telling people you care about that you actually care about them. No chocolates, no flowers, no big fluffy bunnies. Just simple gestures and words. Forget American consumerism and tell a friend you appreciate them, or your parents you’re thankful they’ve impacted your life. Overshadowed by Cupid’s arrows and candies, the day actually belongs to St. Valentine, who wrote caring letters from a prison to anyone suffering outside his tiny cell. He was imprisoned for marrying Christian couples when they were being persecuted by Claudius in Rome, but a few jail cell bars didn’t stop him.
So really, like St. Valentine, you don’t even need to know the person. All you need to do is find someone and give a few positive words to make their day a little brighter.
Share the love.
Talent vs Hard Work
Another constant struggle for coaches, players, and coworkers alike is overcoming God-given talent. Quite often people are either gifted with abilities they take for granted, or suddenly find success is not so difficult to obtain. Because success comes easy to them, they never learn to cultivate a hard work ethic, their full capabilities, or what their absolute best is. When adversity strikes and equal or better competition comes along, this individual will no longer be able to rely on talent alone because the bar they’d been measuring success with has been raised above their self-training.
It is hard work and hard work alone that will yield success.
“Good to Great” Motivational poster
Inspired by a speech by former Wabash College football coach Chris Creighton & the book “Good to Great,” hopefully this motivational poster will get you going when you need it.
NATE SCHRADER 
