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"2025: LOYALTY STARTS FROM WITHIN"
Coach Wooden defined loyalty this way: "To yourself and to all those depending upon you, keep your self-respect."
To be loyal to yourself you must deal with external forces in a consistent manner. Only let external inputs impact you if they help in a positive way. If something pushes you to work harder, focus more, or strengthen your "why," let it in. If it causes you to seek approval, question your value, or spiral into anxiety, block it out. Use external forces as fuel—but never let them become your compass. "Be true to yourself."
As Coach Wooden pointed out in his book Wooden: "Don’t get carried away if things are going too well or too poorly, just continue to make the effort to do the best you can at whatever you’re doing." If Coach were coaching today, he would be dealing with a lot more input because of social media. If he used a platform here is how I think he would do it:
📱 Instagram
- Follow accounts that reflect strong values, not shallow trends.
- Mute or unfollow anything that creates distraction, comparison, or ego.
- Use it to highlight discipline, gratitude, or progress—never to chase attention.
📱 LinkedIn
- Treat others’ success as examples to study, not status to envy.
- Share thoughtful insights, not empty self-promotion.
- Stay focused on building trust and doing meaningful work.
📱 X (Twitter)
- Read ideas from trusted sources—skip the outrage.
- Never argue online.
- Use it to learn, not to react.
📱 Facebook
- Message someone who made a difference.
- Unfollow gossip, division, or negativity.
- Stay connected to people who reflect your values.
Coach Wooden often used this quote from Shakespear’s Hamlet to help us: "This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
How do you stay loyal to yourself?
Yours in Coaching,
Craig Impelman
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COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE
Life Is What We Make of It
Life is a jest;
Take the delight of it.
Laughter is best;
Sing through the night of it.
Swiftly the tear
And the hurt and the ache of it
Find us down here;
Life must be what we make of it.
Life is a song;
Dance to the thrill of it.
Grief's hours are long,
And cold is the chill of it.
Joy is man's need;
Let us smile for the sake of it.
This be our creed:
Life must be what we make of it.
Life is a soul;
The virtue and vice of it,
Strife for a goal,
And man's strength is the price of it.
Your life and mine,
The bare bread and the cake of it
End in this line:
Life must be what we make of it.
Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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