Poems of Excellence

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IF by: Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about don’t deal lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream — and not make dreams your master,
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those too imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools.
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap or all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the will which says to them, ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you.
If all men count on you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of distance run,
Yours is the earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

SUCCESS by: Ralph Waldo Emerson

“To laugh often and much; to win
respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children; to earn
the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false
friends; to appreciate beauty; to
find the best in others; to leave
the world a bit better, whether
by a healthy child, a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition; to
know even one life has breathed
easier because you lived.
This is to have succeeded.”

These are 2 poems I put in our playbooks – maybe they can be helpful to you.