a year of Wooden

I gained so much from doing my year of kindness challenge this past year, that I decided I wanted to take on a new year-long project in 2014. When I was brainstorming ideas I kept coming back to my blog’s title, Day-by-Day Masterpiece. It was inspired by one of my favorite sayings, “Make each day your masterpiece” from the late great basketball coach John Wooden. The saying is part of Coach Wooden’s 7 Point Creed, which was given to him by his father Joshua Wooden upon his graduation from high school.

My dad gave my brother and me copies of the 7 Point Creed, which we both carry around in our wallets. As I was reading over the creed an idea began to form. The more I thought about it, the more excited I became. The past couple days I have been on the edge of my seat to share this with you!

This year {and perfect timing, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Coach Wooden’s first NCAA basketball championship title} I present to you …

This year I am going to focus month-by-month on a different item from Coach Wooden’s 7 Point creed, rounding out the other months with his “two sets of three.” The goal will be to add on a new trait each month while continuing to do the items from the previous months … so that by December 2014, I’ll be doing all the items, bringing everything together to “make each day a masterpiece”! I’m going to start off with the first item on Wooden’s 7 Point Creed:

January: Drink deeply from good books.

This month, I’m going to focus on reading books by Wooden and about him, a new one each week. I’m kicking things off this week by rereading my dad’s wonderful new book Wooden & Me: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach & Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece.”