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When a person truly speaks from their soul what she or he says or does is completely selfless, resulting in clear benefits for everyone. This looks different for each soul type. Soul type 2, for example, creates pathways that enable meaningful engagement with another person. They do this by finding and honoring what they have in common with the other person. They use this information to create an exchange that makes both people feel more alive.
John Wooden is best know as the basketball coach from UCLA whose team had the highest percentage of wins vs losses in collegiate basketball. His team won an unprecedented ten national championships in twelve years. In competitive sports winning is usually everything. But John Wooden was a different kind of coach. He never talked about winning; instead he talked about becoming the best that you could be. He found ways to help his players become a team of people who tried to live up to their potential for the good of every member of the team rather than for personal glory.
What he understood was that you are the one who is responsible for the way you react to whatever comes your way. You have absolute control over that. He also knew that you have control over how you treat others, and the way you treat them will greatly influence how they respond to you. If you want to be part of society you have to learn how to love and support others so that they can do the same for you. Then, life becomes a series of opportunities that you and the people around you can participate in together.
In his book Wooden, John Wooden lays out much of the philosophy that helped him to engage the people that he came into contact with. What follows are his nine promises that we can make to ourselves to help bring fulfillment to our own lives.
1. Promise yourself that you will talk health, happiness, and prosperity as often as possible.
2. Promise yourself to make all your friends know there is something in them that is special and that you value.
3. Promise to think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best in yourself and others.
4. Promise to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
5. Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
6. Promise to forget the mistakes of the past and press on to greater achievements in the future.
7. Promise to wear a cheerful appearance at all times and give every person you meet a smile.
8. Promise to give so much time to improving yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
9. Promise to be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit trouble to press on you. pp. 79-80
Copyright © 2000 Alan Sheets and Barbara Tovey