MantrasAboutTheImportanceOfFundamentals

I grew up playing sports. My coaches liked to quote famous coaches. I heard the following quotes over and over:

�Championships are won on fundamentals. Football is two things: it's blocking and tackling...If you block and tackle better than the team you're playing, you'll win." --Vince Lombardi
...the fundamentals of basketball: shooting, dribbling, defense, passing and rebounding --John Wooden

First, I would like to hear similar mantras about the fundamentals of non sport activities, such as dance and singing.

Second, I would like to hear mantras about the fundamentals of business or information technology.

Third, I would like hear about the value of these mantras to you.

Note, I expect that mantras about football to have zero value for you if you don't care about football. So please comment about mantras in areas you do care about.

SteveSmith 2004.01.11

One I learned while jumping horses is "Keep your eyes up! Don't look at the jump!" Other similar ones are "Look where you're going." and "Soft eyes."

These all have to do with where your attention is. If you're looking at the jump, you're not going to be balanced for the entire jumping process, you're going to freeze, tense up, get heavy, and the horse is probably going to stop before the jump. If you look where you're going and keep your eyes soft and slighty unfocused, your body relaxes and can react to slight changes automatically and easily. Much nicer for the horse, and for the entire partnership experience.

--SuePetersen 2004.01.13

Sue, Beautiful. And more useful than the sports mantras. Thank you.

Reminds me of something I heard in the movie, The Last Samurai. Captain Nathan Algren, played by Tom Cruise, is learning the art of the sword. He is perpetually losing in training matches. After a loss, a Japanese villager who befriends him points out that his swordmanship has "too much mind". His mind is focused on too many things, such as the people watching the match, rather than flowing freely. It's a great line. Algren doesn't speak Japanese and the villager speaks only halting English. But the caring and meaning comes through. Algren thinks about those three words for a long time. They help him free his mind and become an expert swordsman.

Jerry gave me a similar mantra years ago. He asked me to use the words, "up until now" rather than "I can't do this" or "That can't happen". Helpful. Practical. Useful. I appreciate him for sharing that mantra with me.

SteveSmith 2004.01.14

Chess players who are well prepared have more than the expected amount of luck. This saying has helped me ignore what others do. It only matters what I do. In chess a loss is the direct result of my play. If I stick to my stuff, the rest seems to take care of itself, particularly in chess.

This works well for me in business. I can be helpful to people by showing them what services I can provide. Their decision to work with me is none of my concern. An expectation that they should do so has always lead me to a bad result with regard to my peace of mind. CharlesAdams 2004.05.05

Kayaking is a combination of sticking to your stuff and watching where you're going. We teach beginners to look where they want to go (and not at what they're trying to avoid) and doing something to get there. DonGray 2004.05.05

Updated: Wednesday, May 5, 2004