Personality Traits of Successful Athletes

You probably don’t agree with all of these and would change the wording on some of them, but my hope is that this stimulates your thinking on how you can more clearly define and list for your athletes what you feel leads to success.

We all have our own definition of success. I like John Wooden’s definition: “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.”

Or, you could use some of these as ideas for your athletes in a system similar to Jon Gordon’s One Word concept from his book One Word That Will Change Your Life

A starting point for creating your own list…

DRIVE: Desire to win or be successful; sets and maintains high goals for themselves in athletics; responds positively to competition. Desires to attain athletic excellence.

AGGRESSIVENESS: Believes one must be aggressive to win; will not allow others to push them around in competition.

DETERMINATION: Willingness to practice long and hard; often works out willingly by themselves; persevering, patient, and unrelenting in work habits. Works on skills until exhausted.

GUILT-PRONENESS: Accepts responsibility for own actions; accepts blame and criticism even when not deserved; willing to endure physical and mental discomfort.

LEADERSHIP: Enjoys the role of leader and may assume it spontaneously; attempts to influence or direct others in a postiive way.

SELF-CONFIDENCE: Have unfaltering confidence in themselves and their capacity to deal with things; handles unexpected situations well; speaks up appropriately for beliefs to coaches and players.

EMOTIONAL CONTROL: Tends to be emotionally stable and realistic about athletics; will rarely allow feelings to show and performance is not affected by them; not easily frustrated by bad breaks, calls or mistakes.

MENTAL TOUGHNESS: Accepts strong criticism without feeling hurt; can bounce back quickly from adversity; does not need excessive encouragement from the coach.

COACHABILITY: Receptive to coaches’ advice; considers coaching important to becoming a good athlete; accepts the leadership and cooperates with authorities.

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS: Tends to be exacting in character, dominated by sense of duty; will not attempt to bend rules and regulations to suit own needs; places the good of the team above personal well being.

TRUST: Accepts people at face value, believes what the coaches and teammates say and does not look for ulterior motives behind their words or actions; tends to get along well with teammates.

The Way to Victory

Victories of life are won not on the fields nor in the marts where the deci­sive struggle takes place, but in the obscure and forgotten hours of prepara­tion. Success or failure lies in the hands of the individual long before the hour of final test comes.

In the higher fields of success there are no accidents; we reap precisely we they have sown and nothing else; they do well precisely what they have prepared to do and they do nothing else well.

The world puts its force into us when we put ourselves in right relation with it: Experience makes us constantly wiser if we know how to rationalize it: Time deposits all manner of treasure in our imagination and memory, if we hold the doors open.

Nothing is lost upon a person who is bent upon growth, nothing wasted on one who is constantly preparing for their work and life by keeping eyes, mind, and heart open to nature, people, books, and experience. All things that we have seen, heard, known and felt come to our aid at the critical moment to make our thought clear and keep our illustration luminous, our speech eloquent and inspiring.

212–The Extra Degree

If you haven’t seen the video below yet, I think it is worth three minutes to take a look at. It drives home the point that success is not that far away and why it is important to continue to give that little extra effort to get there!

Make sure that your speakers are on before you click on this image…

If you liked that video, we have several other similar ones in our basketball videos section. Click the link below and then click the “Inspiration” tab when you land on the videos page.

Imagine there is a bank account that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day.

Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course?

Each of us has such a bank. It’s name is TIME.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.

Every night it writes off as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to a good purpose.

It carries over no balance. It allows no over draft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day.

If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no drawing against “tomorrow.”

You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health,

happiness and success!

The clock is running!! Make the most of today.

To realize the value of ONE YEAR. ask a student who failed a grade.

To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.

To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who just missed a train.

To realize the value of ONE SECOND. ask someone who just avoided an accident.

To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal at the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with. And remember time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why its called the present.

These are some of my favorite personal development success aphorisms.  I have given credit where I was able to.  If you have any to add, or know who I should attribute any of these to, feel free to comment below. I am far from perfect, but I work to have these thoughts guide my actions.

There are a lot of ways to become a failure, but never taking a chance is the most successful.

To be upset over what you don’t have is to waste what you do have.

Don’t wrestle with pigs.  You both get mud on you and the pig likes it.

The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.

A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a joke or worried to death by a frown on the right person’s brow. Treat them with the greatest of care

There is do, or do not. There is no try. –Yoda

Take a chance and you may lose. Take not a chance and you have lost already.  Søren Kierkegaard,

Focus 90% of your time on solutions and only 10% of your time on problems.  Anthony J. D’Angelo,

Become addicted to constant and never-ending self-improvement.  Anthony J. D’Angelo

An error is not a mistake until you refuse to correct it.

There’s nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.  Peter F. Drucker

Forget regret,  or life is yours to miss –Jonathan Larson

This is as true in everyday life as it is in battle: we are given one life and the decision is ours whether to wait for circumstances to make up our mind, or whether to act and, in acting, to live.   Omar Bradley

Opportunities multiply as they are seized.  Sun Tzu

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.

Life is short–enjoy it while you can.

Peace of mind is the ultimate objective of all of my actions.

I make and live in my own reality so that I do not fall victim to the whims of others.

My demeanor on the sideline (bench) during a game, 10% emotion, 90% analytical.

Whether you think that you can or that you can’t, you are usually right.  Henry Ford

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. Thomas Jefferson.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.  Mark Twain

Good habits are hard to develop, but easy to live with.  Bad habits are easy to develop, but hard to live with.  Brian Tracy

You begin to become successful the minute you decide to be.

If you want to triple your success ratio, you have to triple your failure rate.

I talk to myself rather than listen to myself so that I control my thoughts.

I do not search for things to be offended by.

Anyone who is at the top of their field started at the bottom.

Success comes from managed thinking, so I will spend some time each day managing my thinking.

I will question my limiting beliefs and not question my ability to succeed.

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. Linus Pauling

The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen.  Lee Iacocca

Leave your favorite below in the comments!

Edgar A. Guest

I’d rather see a sermon than to hear one any day;
I’d rather one should walk with me than merely show the way.
The eye’s a better pupil and more willing than the ear;
Fine counsel is confusing, but examples are always clear.

And, best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds;
For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.
I soon can learn to do it, if you’ll let me see it done;
I can see your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may run.
And the lectures you deliver may be very fine and true,
But I’d rather get my lesson by observing what you do;
For I may misunder­stand you and the high advice you give;
But there’s no misunderstanding how you act and how you live!

Winning is giving your best self away
Winning is serving with grace every day
You’ll know that you’ve won when your friends say it’s true.
“I like who I am when I’m around you.
You look for the best in the others you see
And you help us become who we’re trying to be.”

Winning is helping someone who’s down
It’s sharing a smile instead of a frown.

It’s giving your children a hug by the fire
And sharing the values and dreams that inspire.

It’s giving your parents the message “I care.
Thanks, Mom and Dad, for being so fair.”

Winners are willing to give more than get
Their favors are free, you’re never in debt.

Winning is giving one hundred percent
It’s paying your dues, your taxes, your rent
It’s trying and doing, not crying and stewing.

Winners respect every color and creed,
They share and they care for everyone’s need.

The losers keep betting that winning is getting
But there’s one law that they keep forgetting
And this is the Law you can live and believe
The more that you give, the more you’ll receive!