Years ago, I was inspired by a card Coach John Wooden carried in his wallet throughout his life. When John graduated the eighth grade in the small country town of Centerton, Indiana, his father Joshua gave him a white card.
On one side of that card, he’d written a poem by Henry van Dyke. On the other side was the creed that summarized Joshua Wooden’s philosophy of life. In the book, My Personal Best: Life Lessons From an All-American Journey, Wooden described the moment he received that card from his father. “I turned the little white card over and saw that Dad had also written down the creed he so often shared with my brothers and me: seven simple rules to follow in life,” he wrote. “As I began to read it, he (Joshua Wooden) said, ‘Johnny, try and live up to these and you’ll do all right.'”
These became John’s core values that guided him all throughout the remainder of his life. Here are the 7 statements his father passed on to him that became famously known as Coach Wooden’s 7 Point Creed:
- Be true to yourself
- Make each day your masterpiece
- Help others
- Drink deeply from good books, including the Good Book
- Make friendship a fine art
- Build a shelter against a rainy day
- Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day
I decided to make my own creed that would be a reminder to me each and every day of the values I want to live by. So here are the 5 statements I came up with that I work on living out daily. I call them “Johnny 5 Alive” (if you’re over 35, you should get that!). If I am living these out, I know I am fully alive!
- Display a positive attitude in all things
- Speak faith-filled words in every situation
- Add value to each person I come in contact with
- Learn from everything I experience
- Focus on what’s most important
I challenge you to develop your own creed that will serve as a guidance system for you. Choose those creeds now, and forever live by them. Hang them on your mirror, or wherever you see them, so you are reminded to start your day off right. I have mine on my home screen on my phone so that I can see those values to live by every time I pick it up.
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