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A newsletter from an 87-year-old Modern Elder, seamlessly blending profound and timeless life lessons from the intersection of sports, leadership, business, history, and culture.
GEORGE RAVELING“Great leaders execute the strategy and recognize it is about WE, not ME. It is about how they can serve the needs of others. I’ve always had this theory that, if you help enough people get what they want, you’ll always get what you want.”
GEORGE RAVELING“The first sign of intelligence is to admit that you don’t know something.”
GEORGE RAVELING“Every day instead of concentrating solely on productivity, I focus on managing my energy, time, and environment. To me, productivity is a byproduct of the other three. I try to make sure that at some point during that day, I have an hour of “think time,” where I can sit and have a deep, rich, constructive conversation with myself.”
GEORGE RAVELING“We spend far too much time coaching and training their bodies than we do coaching and training their minds.”
GEORGE RAVELING“Relationships, at their most authentic stage, are partnerships. The goal of partnerships is to create value and win-win situations. It’s not I win, you lose, or you lose, I win. It’s not about that. We’re in this thing together. At the core of authentic relationships are trust and respect. You have to trust a person and respect the person.”
GEORGE RAVELING“Great leadership starts from within, and the most important leadership is self-leadership. If we cannot lead ourselves, how in the world will we lead others?”
GEORGE RAVELING“The most important conversations that we can have daily are the conversations that we have with ourselves. But we can get trapped in a lot of chatter and mental clutter and go through days, weeks, months, and years never having a real conversation with ourselves.”
GEORGE RAVELING“What I think gets overlooked in relationship building is listening — being able to actively listen and listen to understand and learn instead of listening to reply.”
GEORGE RAVELING“Our self-talk is far more important than our conversations with those around us. The best part about the conversation with yourself is you’re in total control of that narrative.”
GEORGE RAVELING“Too often in our lives, we focus on the outer versions of who we are instead of the inner versions of who we are.”
GEORGE RAVELING“I believe if we’re going to get the most out of an athlete, we’ve got to spend more time trying to understand them for who they authentically are.”
GEORGE RAVELING“The journey toward self-mastery is a marathon, not a sprint, that will challenge us to the depths of who we are ― which can be uncomfortable. Yet turning inward on our journey provides us with the transformative opportunity to discover our authentic selves.”
GEORGE RAVELING“Having negative thoughts makes us human. The key is not to let that negative thought turn into a lingering negative conversation.”
GEORGE RAVELING“How we live, why we live, and in the manner in which we live becomes our legacy.”
GEORGE RAVELING“Mental toughness is the ability to see the bright side of a hopeless situation. Adversity is always an experience, not a final act.”
GEORGE RAVELING“In essence, we all wear an invisible mask that silently communicates a universal message: “Make me feel important.”
GEORGE RAVELING“It’s important to recognize that leadership doesn’t hinge on perfection; rather, it centers on embracing our humanity and enabling others to unleash their truest and best selves.”
GEORGE RAVELING“Our relationship with others will always come back to our relationship with ourselves.”
GEORGE RAVELING