Grow the Game®

Chazz Woodson - Words of Wisdom
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Teaching How To Think

Good morning!

Your children are not your children… You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams… You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Just as we are not clones of our parents … well most of us are not … our kids will not be our clones. Neither will our students, players, mentees, or employees. And to attempt to make them so is a fruitless endeavor. As is the case with any person that we are directing, guiding, or influencing, our obligation is to instill and/or foster the development of certain values, and to provide them the tools to call forth those values as they move forward in life and away from us. If we expect that they will do and think as we do, we are not only deluding ourselves, but selling short our own capacity to influence. To quote Margaret Mead, “Children must be taught HOW TO THINK, not what to think.” As influencers, we have to trust that we are so good at what we do, that as we let go of our charges (our students, children, players, employees, etc) they will make informed, productive, and positive decisions – not merely the same decisions that we would make. We must first trust ourselves before we can them. Leadership is about what the leader does, not about what the follower doesn’t do.

Make it a GREAT day!

Stay blessed.