Coach

For years I was blessed with a squash gym manager that could not help being a coach.  It was just in his nature.  In hindsight, I took advantage of the situation.  Rather than take regular lessons, I simply asked for advice.  Normally I would not consider this to be a problem, but I asked for a bit of advance several time a week!  From my footwork to my grip to the way I played lobs.  I wanted to pick his brain and I was too cheap to get it legitimately through regular lessons.   His generosity was amazing.  He gave without reservation, though I am sure he still had more to give when I moved on.  The lessons continue to shape how I play the game more than twenty years later.  Ironically, the lessons went well beyond the game of squash.
Life is never about force.  Life is about the choices one makes and being where you want to be at all times (controlling the T in squash).   The ends may seem to justify force, but you can never sustain this type of approach. 
Life changes with consistency.  Being able to be consistent allows one to pursue the impossible without tiring.  The alternative is going for the unlikely in hope that it somehow happens. 
Life is very different if you believe.  Arrogance is never the answer to anything.  Confidence based on having had the experience more than one changes the probability of the outcome.
Preparation is a requirement for winning.  One may occasionally win a skirmish when he or she is unprepared, but war requires the right footwork and racquet position.
Endurance makes a difference.  Being willing and able to tap a energy reserve within provides one with the opportunity to make a difference.
Divinity offers us a few more words of advice; “How blessed are you who enter into these things, you men and women who embrace them, who keep Sabbath and don't defile it, who watch your step and don't do anything evil!”  (Isaiah 56.2) 
It is always good to listen to a true coach.