i•n•s•p•i•r•a•t•i•o•n•s

Good Afternoon. Here is a great thought for the day:

Coach Vince Lombardi was very demanding of his players, his assistants, family members, and everyone else who came into his orbit.

He held his players to a particularly high standard. They were all gifted athletes who had a responsibility to use their talents to the fullest. "I will try to make each of you the best football player you can possibly be," he told his players time and again, "and I will try with every fiber in me, and I will try and try." This wasn't the passion of a coach trying to win football games. This was the philosophy of a teacher who felt that all of us have obligations we can't shirk or avoid.

Every so often a player with talent, but not the habits, would arrive in training camp. Everyone knew it was only a matter of time before Lombardi took the young player on as a personal challenge. His wife, Marie, described this "molding" process best, "When Vin is challenged to try and make a great one out of a ball player, I can only feel sorry for the player. Vin is going to make a hole in his head and pour everything into it. When it starts, the player hasn't any idea what he's in for and he hasn't got a chance. He'll get hammered and hammered until he's what Vin wants him to be. You can't resist this thing. You can't fight it."

"Unless a man believes in himself and makes a total commitment to his career and puts everything he has into it — his mind, his body, and his heart — what is life worth to him? If I were a salesman, I would make this commitment to my company, to the product, and most of all to myself."

"After all the cheers have died down and the stadium is empty, after the headlines have been written, and after you are back in the quiet of your room and the championship ring has been placed on the dresser and after all the pomp and fanfare have faded, the enduring thing that is left is the dedication to doing with our lives the very best we can to make the world a better place in which to live."

- Vince Lombardi

Have a wonderful day.

"Each morning is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When the sun rises tomorrow this day will be gone forever, in its place will be something you have left — may it be something good. Follow your heart, it knows what to do."

London Delicious stories are distributed weekly by email. If you'd like to be sure not to miss our next story, sign up for a free subscription here: