A new week means a new year of Wooden challenge! Since we are now into the month of June {can you believe it??} we are on to a new focus for this challenge, which also comes from Coach Wooden’s 7 Point Creed: Give thanks for your blessings every day.

• January: Drink deeply from good books.
• February: Make friendship a fine art.
• March: Help others.
• April: Build a shelter against a rainy day (financially).
• May: Be true to yourself.
• June: Give thanks for your blessings every day.

But before we move onto June, a quick moment of reflection on last week’s question, relating to May’s challenge to “Be true to yourself.” If you were to reach back and give advice to your 10-year-old self, what would you say? Looking into the future, what advice do you think your 90-year-old self might give your current self?

For advice I would give to my 10-year-old self, I wrote: Hold onto your curiosity, creativity, passion and kindness — they are your greatest gifts. Also, don’t feel self-conscious about your nose. It is perfect exactly as it is.

If my 90-year-old self were to give advice to my current self, it might be something like this: Don’t doubt yourself. Don’t worry about the opinions and criticisms of other people. Savor the small moments. Cherish the relationships you are blessed with. Time with the people you love is infinitely important than the work you get done: always remember that.

For the month of June, we’ll be working on cultivating gratitude. This week’s challenge is to start a gratitude jar or gratitude journal: every night before you go to bed, write down at least one good thing that happened that day, something or someone you are grateful for. {Here’s a post I wrote earlier this year about starting a gratitude jar.}

Hope you are having a masterpiece Monday! And a very special welcome home to my brother — can’t wait to see you Wednesday, buddy!