Yesterday I was home looking for a pen. I checked the drawer, but saw only a pile of old crayons, markers and pencils. After moving one or two of them without finding anything, I wandered around the house in a futile search.

Finally I returned to the pen drawer and did what I should have done all along: dug deep into the pile. Sure enough, there were two pens! But in the meantime, time, effort and who knows what else were lost.

A wise person once said, “Genius is the ability to evade work by doing something right the first time.”

Or to put it another way, if you don’t have time to do things right, how could you possibly have time to do them wrong?

This quote is attributed to Coach Bobby Knight: “Do what needs to be done. Do it when it needs to be done. Do it as well as it can be done. Do this all the time.”

Ollie Gelston coached basketball for many years at Montclair State University in Northern New Jersey. He had only one rule: Be in the right place and the right time, and do the right thing.

No matter what words you use, it’s time to make quality a part of today’s living. Start by starting correctly.

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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.

We had tickets on the lawn, while much of the crowd — and the band — would be under shelter.

That meant that the show would go on, despite the wind, rain, thunder and lightning.

We could barely see as we drove. We stopped once. We listened on the radio for any hope that the storm would pass.

There’s just one thing we didn’t do. We never said one word about turning around and going home. We wanted to see the show, and gave no thought to not seeing it. And we saw it!

Funny thing about that storm. If we had been going to school, to work or on an annoying errand, it would have been a perfect excuse not to go.

It’s the same way with you. Lots of the reasons you give yourself for not doing something are just excuses.

In Juneau, Alaska, where it rains about 220 days per year, the people say they never postpone an event because of bad weather. If they did, they could never get anything done. They don’t use weather as an excuse.

Back to the concert for a moment. I can’t recall exactly, but I’m sure that those of us who made it to the show were congratulating each other on our perseverance. There’s just one thing wrong with that picture. Real achievement doesn’t come from doing the things you want to do. It comes from doing the things you need to do. No excuses.

How about you? When you decide not to do something, do you have a reason or an excuse?

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No wonder! Taking that first step is a huge moment for any baby. It separates the past from the future, and opens the way for a different life.

You’re just like a baby in the sense that first steps don’t end when you grow up. Life is full of first steps, and you can take them any time you want. You can go from out-of-shape to buff, from addicted to sober, from sick to healthy or from jobless to employed. In each case, that first step is the one that can transform everything. Nothing happens without it.

Just as with a baby, that first step isn’t easy. You may fall a few times. You may be a bit rocky on your feet. But those things are soon forgotten when you’re on your way to a new life.

If you’re not getting what you want from life, you can change it all with that one step. You can start doing something you haven’t been doing, or you can stop doing something harmful.

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova took a big step in her life. Years ago, after winning a major or two, she faced a choice: She could rest on her laurels or become one of the all-time greats. She chose greatness, and began by overhauling her diet. She became great, maybe the greatest of all time. It began with the one step of fixing her diet.

What step can you take today that will transform your life?

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It was my first trip there since the series ended, and, upon walking in, I asked the waitress, “Where was Tony?”

There were no more words needed. She knew that I was asking “Where was Tony sitting in the final episode?”

It reminded me of the only time I’ve ever visited Dealey Plaza, the place in Dallas where president John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

As new tourists arrive in the plaza, they ask two questions. The first is, “Where was he?” There are no extra words needed; the question refers to where the president was when the bullets hit.

The second question, accompanied by a gesture toward the Texas Book Depository, is “Which was one was it?” That question refers to the window where police say the assassin perched.

I asked my friend and fellow blogger Larry O’Connor, who sees deep into the human experience, about what these sparse conversations meant. He said that they reflected an understanding so embedded among some groups that words were scarcely necessary.

For a fan of “The Sopranos,” the question, “Where was Tony?” is sufficient. For an American who remembers JFK’s death, few words would be needed in Dealey plaza.

It made me wonder about my team — and yours. What values, thoughts, habits, are so embedded and perfectly understood that no further explanations are needed?

If you play for the New York Yankees, the expectation is clear: win the World Series. If you played hoops under Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee, you knew you were going to work hard. If you join the women’s soccer team at the University of North Carolina, you better be ready to compete in practice, because that program is about internal competition.

In my years as a sports writer, I worked with certain understandings: you’re going to write a story, you’re going to get it in on time, and it will be the best story you can possibly produce in that amount of time.

We’re talking about your team culture. How are things done? How well are they done? How often are they done?

In my earliest days in the newspaper business, I got a lesson in team culture. One day our department was getting a lot of heat from the big editors. “Don’t worry,” said my boss. “It will blow over in a day or so.”

That editor knew from experience that the sudden emphasis on quality and accountability would not last long.

How about in your group? The people there have a deep understanding of something. The question is, “What?” What do they really believe about the way things are done? Will you keep your emphasis on quality, or will things blow over? The answer to that question will determine how successful your team is.

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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.

That question more and more is drawing the attention of businesses. In this Harvard Business Review article, researcher Sandy Pentland concludes that patterns of communication mean more than factors like intelligence, personality, skill, and the substance of discussions combined.

But what exactly are patterns of communication?

Pentland has developed a badge that measures the energy, body language and even the places where people communicate. Strangely enough, the badge doesn’t measure — or care about — the substance of the communication. It just collects data on how people interact.

If you’re a coach, boss or leader of any kind, the video in the article can help you think about your team.

As a clue, listen to what Pentland says about the personality type that best predicts a team’s success: a charismatic connector. This is the person who goes from team member to team member, asking their opinion on certain issues.

This Psychology Today article goes into the subject of charismatic connectors. It said, “In brainstorming sessions with teams whose social style was similar to these charismatic connectors, the resulting quality of the talking was characterized by high levels of listening, more even-handed turn-taking, and high levels of engagement, trust, and cooperation.”

Who knows? Perhaps Jeremy Lin is a charismatic connector, and that helps explain why the New York Knicks improved with him in the lineup.

Do you know enough about charismatic connectors? Do you have one on your team?

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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.

Writing in The New York Post after Rivera tore his ACL in a freak pre-game accident, Sherman says the relief pitcher is more than just a baseball player. He is the embodiment of greatness, not in the cheap, hero-a-day way so common today, but the kind who transforms his part of the world.

Sherman even uses the word “nobility” to describe Rivera, and he’s not wrong. Rivera has survived two decades in the New York spotlight without any hint of  blemish. He never did anything you wouldn’t want your children to see. He never brought embarrassment to  himself, his team or his profession. In Rivera, you are talking about a special kind of person.

And when that person can be the very best in the world at his job, you have someone who inspires reverence from teammates and opponents alike. In my book “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success,” there is a chapter on staying on guard against the self. The secret lies in four words: respect, humility, curiosity and hunger. Those words apply to Rivera. As Coach John Wooden said, “Talent can get you to the top, but character keeps you there.”

It doesn’t matter whether you like the Yankees or not. Any time you can see greatness, you want to look, appreciate and study. For instance, Sherman writes, “I would dare say I have never heard an opponent speak badly of Rivera.”

That in itself might be a bigger feat than all of Rivera’s saves.

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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”

Those words capture so much of what coaching should be about. The job of a leader is more than just giving orders or creating wins and losses. It’s about making a difference in lives.

At the school where I coach, headmaster Tom Nammack gathers the coaches for a talk before the school year begins. He always makes it a point to say, “The two hours the child spends with you every day might be the best two hours of his or her day.”
The older I get, the more I appreciate what he is saying. No one has it all, and the one you least suspect — the person who seems to have everything together — could be suffering on the inside.

That’s why leaders should look at those under their care as more than pieces to be placed into a strategic puzzle. They are human beings, who need support, guidance, challenge, fun and meaning.

Coach Pritchard, who is my co-author on “Ten Things Great Coaches Know,” told me another quote that leaders can keep in mind. It goes, “Never let the problem be solved become greater than the person to be loved.”

My friend Dr. Carl McGown, who has coached championship volleyball teams all over the world, has said, “It’s not important whether they love you. What’s important is that you love them.”
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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.

This comes to mind because of a Geoffrey James article in Inc. titled “8 Things Great Bosses Demand from Employees.”

Top on the list is “Be True to Your Word.”

Writes James, “Your boss wants to trust you. Really.  Therefore, whenever you accept an assignment, follow through religiously, even fanatically. Do what you say you’re going to do. Never overcommit, and avoid hedging your bets with vague statements like “I’ll try” and “maybe.” Instead, make your word carry real weight.”

This advice applies not only to the relationship between boss and worker, but also to coaches and athletes, teachers and students, friends and even spouses. No one wants to be lied to or fooled.

As Friedrich Nietzsche said, “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”

A friend of mine recently had a chance to meet baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken. A slugging infielder, Ripken is best known for playing in 2,632 consecutive games, the most in big-league history.

He was the ultimate in trust. For more than 16 seasons, managers trusted to Ripken to show up in shape to play, and to give his best effort. Ripken never betrayed that trust.

If you want to have a great relationship with anyone, begin by doing what you say you are going to do.

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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.

“We’re going to re-set your baseline today,” a SEAL tells a group of athletes as they embark on a grueling session to test and expand their limits.

Olympians and SEALS are just like the rest of us. They have limits to their ability to endure discomfort, pain and frustration. The difference comes in the way they handle those limits. Their life is a struggle to re-set boundaries.

That’s what brought them to SEALS training, with its freezing water, rolls in the dirt, and heavy loads to lift, as detailed in this article from USA Today.

“We push in our training,” says Zack Railey, a 2008 Olympic silver medalist in sailing, “but this was just a totally different type of physical and mental exhaustion.”

Olympic gold medalist Garrett Weber-Gale went through the training with Michael Phelps and other swimmers in 2009. “I guess what I took away from that was the human body can always achieve more than we believe,” she said. “And that’s controlled purely by our minds.”

You may never play in the Olympics, but you can compete against the most important foe of all — yourself. You can become a SEAL or an Olympian in the way you struggle with the things that are holding you back.

As peak performance expert Dave Cross has written, all the things you want lie outside your comfort zone.

“You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown,” said Denis Waitley.
Don’t wait for a Navy SEAL to re-set your limits. Start doing it yourself today!

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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.

In any given group — classroom, business, sport — which person will exceed expectations, which one will fall short, and which one will wind up just about where you thought?

We know the factors that won’t necessarily predict success. They include gender, income, race, IQ or being voted Most Likely to Succeed.

For every Einstein, Oprah or Dr. Martin Luther King, there are millions of people who seemed to have more talent and promise.
How did those three rise while the millions did not? This Forbes article by Keld Jensen lists different kinds of intelligence not measured by the tests you took in school: emotional, moral and body.

Besides explaining each type of intelligence, Jensen offers tips you can use to improve these quotients in yourself.

A tidbit: Madonna’s IQ was 140, while John F. Kennedy’s was 119.

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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.