"You can't get much done in life if you only…

“You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good” is a saying that has been printed on posters. The saying has been attributed to basketball star Jerry West since at least 1997, but it’s not certain when he said it.

Wikipedia: Jerry West
Jerry Alan West (born May 28, 1938) is a retired American basketball player who played his entire professional career for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His nicknames include “Mr. Clutch,” for his ability to make a big play in a clutch situation, such as his famous buzzer-beating 60-foot shot that tied Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the New York Knicks; “The Logo,” in reference to his silhouette being incorporated into the NBA logo; and “Zeke from Cabin Creek,” after the creek near his birthplace of Chelyan, West Virginia. Playing the small forward position early in his career, West was a standout at East Bank High School and at West Virginia University, leading the WVU Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game, earning the NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player honor despite the loss. He then embarked on a 14-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was the co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team in Rome, a squad that would be inducted as a unit into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.

Google Books
Your Bridge to a Better Future
By John C. Maxwell
Nashville, TN: T. Nelson Publishers
1997
Pg. 49:
“You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.” — Jerry West

Google News Archive
22 August 2000, Philippine Daily Inquirer (Makati City, Philippines), “One Day At A Time” by Tina Aboitiz Juan, pg. C6, col. 3:
Maxwell quotes basketball great Jerry West as saying, “You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good. People who go far do so because they motivate themselves and give life their best, regardless of how they feel. To be successful, persevere.”

Google Books
Get in the Game:
A Spiritual Workout For Athletes
By Tony Evans and Jonathan Evans
Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers
2006
Pg. 64:
As NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West observed, “You can’t get too much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.”

The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ)
NJ Nets: Frank’s Philosophy Won’t Change With Young Players
By Dave D’Alessandro/Star-Ledger Columnist
on October 03, 2008 at 3:55 PM, updated October 03, 2008 at 6:23 PM
Usually, he suffers from “source amnesia” when he spouts his stuff, that memory lag in which you can remember a statement without recalling where you heard it, or whether the source was even credible.

So the giant quote Lawrence Frank had painted across the locker room wall this preseason has no credit line under it: “You can’t get much done in life,” it reads, “if you only work on the days when you feel good.”

Sounds familiar.

“Actually, that one is Jerry West,” Frank explained. “They just forgot to inscribe it. I got another one: ‘If what you did yesterday looks great, you didn’t do much today.’”

Google Books
Positive Mind, Healthy Heart!
By Joseph C. Piscatella
Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
2010
Pg. 115:
“You can’t get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.” —JERRY WEST, BASKETBALL PLAYER