I attended my niece’s 8th grade graduation back in May. Actually, I attended my other niece’s 5th grade graduation as well but that is not where I heard 3 things for a successful life.
The speaker at the graduation used to be an assistant coach at the University of Louisville for many years. He then got the head basketball coaching position at Bellarmine University several years ago. This school wasn’t great in basketball. Coach Scotty Davenport, the speaker at the graduation, made a huge difference when he came on board.
He told a great story about his team and how they not only play as a team, but they live as a team, too. He spoke of a 15 year old boy who has battled cancer almost his entire life, and how the players made him an honorary part of their team. Read story here: Louisville Boy Fighting Cancer to Start for Bellarmine Against Louisville.
Here are the 3 things for a successful life that really impacted me.
1. Stay positive. Life is full of negativity. We are surrounded by negative things every single day. The news is full of it. There are people who constantly spew negativity. How refreshing it is to be around someone who is positive. It takes no more energy to be positive than to be negative. Plus, they are both contagious. How much better it is to spread positive energy than negative?
2. Don’t delay gratitude. We’ve all heard of delayed gratification, right? That is a good thing. The idea is to do the hard stuff first so you can get it out of the way and get on with the good stuff. The coach was talking about being grateful and letting people know it. It is important in any relationship to show your gratitude. Don’t delay it.
3. Make someone better. This is where the story of the 15 year old came in. If we each lived our lives with this goal in mind, making someone better, what a difference that would make. It would also improve our own outlook because we would feel so much better about ourselves. Our lives would become more satisfying. It just works best when we get outside of ourselves and live with others in mind.
It was an inspiring commencement speech, which is what commencement speeches are supposed to be.
It was great having the opportunity to see both nieces graduate from their perspective schools, and a major treat to hear these 3 things from a college coach.
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