Saturday Blueprint With Coach George Raveling

Coach George Raveling believes there's a price you have to pay, directly or indirectly, as you grow and that the minor setbacks we experience prepare us for major comebacks — if we are patient enough to trust the timing of our lives.

The Daily Coach continued its discussion with Coach Raveling about the power of reading, coaches who have positively impacted his life, and the journey of self-mastery.

This interview has been condensed and edited for brevity.

Coach Raveling, you are known to be a voracious reader. How did this love affair with books begin?

Well, as I look back on it now, the point of reference, as so many times as we speak, will always be my grandma. My grandma told me one time, "George, you know, back in the days of slavery, the plantation owners used to put their money in books and put them up on the bookshelves" because their banking system wasn't as sophisticated as it is today. I said, "Well, grandma, why do they do that?" She said, "Because they didn't have to worry about the slaves stealing the money because the slaves would never take the books off the shelf because they couldn't read."

From that, I began to understand that as long as someone can control your mind, they can control who you are in your body. I decided that I was never going to allow myself to be in a position where someone could control my mind and control my body because of my lack of information and knowledge. I decided that I was going to try to read and learn as much as I possibly could on a continual basis because I believe that people will have a greater respect for you if they respect you intellectually.

I've often felt, in life, if I had the choice between you liking me or you respecting me, I'd far more hope that you respect me than like me. I figure the byproduct of you respecting me will be that you'll learn to like me. I don't work at trying to get people to like me. My grandmother taught me to be curious. She taught me to ask questions. She taught me good manners. She taught me humility. She taught me to help people. And she taught me about the power of books and reading.

Who are some coaches that have had a transformative impact on your life?

Three coaches who have had an immense impact on me as a person, as a coach, and in my life would be Bob Knight, John Thompson and Lefty Driesell. Lefty Driesell, I was his assistant at the University of Maryland. He was the one who fueled my passion for reading. He was the one who taught me that you don't just read the sports section. He actually got me into a system that I still use. When I go to the newspaper now, the last section of the newspaper that I read is sports. That's something that started back with him. He also told me the importance of reading the editorial page every day. The other thing was he wanted us to be the best dressed staff in the ACC. I picked up a lot of habits from Lefty that I have to this day.

John Thompson and I grew up in the same neighborhood in Washington, D.C. He's had so much influence on the way I think, the way I act, and what I believe. The one thing I learned with John was when you were around John, your talk to listen ratio should be 90 percent, and the talk should be 10 percent because, if it's any other way, you've lost a great opportunity to learn and to be taught. John was a maverick thinker, and he was a maverick thinker before the connotation even existed.

Bob Knight's greatest gift to me was that he saw something in me that I never saw in myself. He was relentless to make sure that I achieved it. He said to me one day, "George, if we're going to survive in this profession, we have to become an expert in some phase of the game, and you need to make yourself an expert in some phase of the game."

At 85, the word retirement is not in your vocabulary. What are your thoughts on the idea of retirement?

I'm not too fond of the concept of retirement. It's the biggest force that's ever been predicated on us is this idea of retirement because the first thing that happens you retire physically, and then you retire mentally. Then you're just taking up residence in society. I don't ever want to be a resident of society. I want to be a contributor to society. Our lives consist of two dates with a dash in between. It is our responsibility to make that dash count. Retirement is a mindset that usually gets manifested into our daily reality. When retirement looms, we often stop learning, unlearning, and relearning. But even if we retire from our professions, we should never retire from pursuing knowledge, wisdom, and the meaning of life.

Why is nurturing and cultivating the skill set of critical thinking so important on our leadership journeys?

I've grown in the latter years of my life to understand that I'm a product of an educational system that was based on telling me what to do and think instead of teaching me how to think. So much of my time now is spent trying to teach myself how to think. And there's so much time that I have to make up because I didn't ever really understand the relevance or importance of being able to think because someone always told me what to think. There is always someone telling us, "We know what's best for you." If I don't know what's best for me, then how the hell can somebody else think they know what's best for me?

Can you speak on the journey towards self-mastery being a marathon, not a sprint?

At 85, I am still a work in progress. Each day is a sacred gift and an honor to continue exploring and reaching for our outer limits. The light shines on our souls just once in life. There is always an untapped reservoir of burning purpose and potential within us waiting to be revealed and activated. The most valuable present we will ever receive is the gift of being alive.

I realize that too often in our lives, we focus on the outer versions of who we are instead of the inner versions of who we are. The journey toward self-mastery is a marathon, not a sprint, that will challenge us to the depths of who we are ― which can sometimes be uncomfortable.

I have come to realize life is about unpacking the most difficult question of "Who am I?" and being at peace with the discoveries. To this day, I am still asking myself those three words: Who am I? This question has ultimately become my North Star and the guiding compass for my self-leadership and self-mastery journey.

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