Coach Meyer On Why Baseball Is The Superior Sport

If you know Coach Meyer at all you know how much he loves the game of baseball and how much of the student of the game he is. One of my all-time favorite Coach Meyer thoughts (and he has some classics) is on why he considers baseball the most superior sport:

"Baseball has to be the superior sport, because it's the only sport that when you suck on defense you have to stay on defense. Every other sport rewards bad defense by giving the ball back."

Jim Rohn--It's Easy To Achieve Success

Some thoughts from Jim Rohn on accomplishing goals:

1. If you will change, everything will change for you.
2. Change your mind, how you think, gather new information, gain new knowledge.
3. It's EASY to achieve. Rohn's Definition of EASY--something that I can do.
4. Must work hard at the easy.
5. How come most people do do the "easy"? Because it's "easy" not to.
6. The things that are easy to do, are easy not to do. That's the difference between success and failure.
7. Do not NEGLECT to do the easy things I can do every day.
8. NEGLECT is the major reason we don't reach the goals we set.
9. NEGLECT starts as an infection--and if you don't take care of it, it becomes a disease. 1 neglect leads to another.
   

US Military Academy Notes

Notes From United States Military Academy

A few notes I put together from a recent USMA video we watched:

1. Realize you are a small part of a great institution.
2. Count on your buddies.
3. Responsible not only for self but roommates.
4. After morning workout they have 20 minutes: to shower, memorize newspaper articles, memorize menu, and clean their room.
5. Everything is designed to be a challenge.
6. Instill over a long period of time an attention to detail.
7. Teamwork
8. Everyone subjected to same discipline and same rigor.
9. We press people. Raise them to a standard they never thought they could never achieve.
10. You do things you didn’t think you could do before.
11. Train them to be leaders.
12. How am I going to accomplish this task before me?
13. Be mentally into it.
14. Suffer—Perseverance—CharacterSelf Confidence to overcome circumstances.
15. This is not for everyone.
16. They take ownership.
17. Force them to prioritize.
18. Act composed, cool and rational in times of stress.
19. Draw not only from your own reservoir but from others as well.
20. Mind is stronger than anything you can imagine.

Einstein's Definition of Insanity

Albert Einstein’s Definition of Insanity:

“To continue to do the same thing
but expect different results.”

Too often as leaders we encounter situations where we are not getting the results that are expected. However, if things continue in the same manner we must expect the same results. For this reason, we tell our players that the games and their results aren't often surprises because we see the same things in practice. This is why we want to be process oriented, when we get the process right it will yield the results expected.

Thoughts From Bear Bryant

Thoughts From Bear Bryant

1. Sell them on what it takes to win.
2. Don’t make the same mistakes twice.
3. People you’re surrounded with, make or break you.
4. Do you have a genuine desire to excel.
5. We want someone that’s special.
6. Be successful with the “in-between” players.
7. Plan for everything that can happen.
8. Every player represents a lot of people.
9. Make the momma’s and the pappa’s proud.
10. Rehearse all the little things.
11. Expect the unexpected.
12. Defense=Pride—Intensity—Tenacity.
13. If you don’t have a winning attitude, I don’t want you.
14. Every play, every man.
15. Get confidence by performing in practice and then in games.
16. Discipline themselves and sacrifice and fight=get up and keep coming back.
17. Trying to win the game on every play. Don’t know which play will win the game.
18. People—Plan—Positive Attitude is how you win.

Power of Persuasion

The Power of Persuasion
3 Steps To Influence
Tony Jeary

In a recent article in Success magazine the writer says that our effectiveness as a leader or salesperson is determined by our ability to persuade.

“Persuasion is the cornerstone of great execution”—Tony Jeary

The most successful people effectively persuade others to take action on their behalf by using three principles.

1. Communicate At The Belief Level
--Must be a heavy dose of “Why” constantly being explained.
--Why is communicated by explaining the value and purpose of what you’re doing

2. Set A Powerful Example By Your Own Behavior
--What you do speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say—Emerson
--Only 7% of communication is oral. The other 93% is the result of what people see and sense, based on tone on other nonverbal clues.
--If you want to persuade other, exceed expectations yourself.

3. Demonstrate Confidence In What You Say And Do
--The ability to present yourself, your requests and your vision with confidence is another important nonverbal piece of the persuasion formula.
--Don’t be tempted to give a less assertive opinion for the purpose of not appearing arrogant. When you say things like, “You probably know more about this than I do”, you are unwittingly sabotaging your own perceived confidence.

A Leader's Greatest Things

A LEADER’S GREATEST THINGS
John Maxwell

John Maxwell put together a subjective list of a leader’s “greatest things.” These are a great way to do a self-assessment as a leader.

1. A Leader’s Greatest Liability: INSECURITY
Wayne Schmidt said, “no amount of personal competency compensates for personal insecurity. In other words, no matter how confident you are, your competence can never outweigh and overcome your insecurity.
Maxwell feels that the greatest lid on a leader’s ability is insecurity. Insecure leaders are always positioning themselves to look good in the eyes of others.

2. A Leader’s Greatest Motivation: A CHALLENGE
Maxwell was recently asked how he spots a leader. He said, once you understand what to look for, it’s not very complicated. Leaders love challenges. Leaders want uncertainty. They love being on the edge where they don’t know if they are going to make or break it. They love not knowing how these things are going to end up, but one thing is for sure: Good leaders bet on themselves. They will take the potential reward even though it could end up being a potential loss.

3. A Leader’s Greatest Return: DEVELOPING PEOPLE
What does developing people mean? That you value them. That you commit time to them. That you mentor them. That you equip them and that you empower them.

4. A Leader’s Greatest Prayer: WISDOM
Maxwell said he prays for wisdom more than anything else. Wisdom is knowing what to do next. Skill is knowing how to do it. Virtue is doing it. Dr. William Mayo said, “When knowledge is translated into proper action, we speak of it as wisdom.”

5. A Leader’s Greatest Recognition: RESPECT
The highest level of leadership results in respect. Respect is not a personal right. “Everyone has the right to speak, but you have to earn the right to be heard.” Respect is usually gained on difficult ground.

Good Thinking--Ideas From John Maxwell

GOOD THINKING—Ideas from John Maxwell

1. Flip Darr, a former collegiate swimming coach who played a part in training eight Olympic medalists said that he felt if he would work on their heads, their bodies would come along. A lot of coaches work on their bodies and then at the last moment try to do their heads. The thing is, if they are working with their heads all the time, and working with their head over the body, mind over matter, they will have more confidence.

2. Mental is to Physical as 4 is to 1.

3. Must be an overall commitment to thinking.

4. Everything begins with a thought—every great invention, technique, conversation, and every bit of growth starts in someone’s head.

5. What we think determines who we are and who we are determines what we do. What kind of person do you want to be? What do you want to accomplish in your life and career? Are your thoughts paving the way for you to achieve those goals or are they getting in the way?

6. Our thoughts determine our destiny, and our destiny determines our legacy. You are today where your thoughts have brought you, and you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.

7. People who go to the top think differently than others. Nothing limits achievement like small thinking, and nothing expands possibilities like unleashed thinking.

8. We can change the way we think. The ability to think well isn’t just an asset, it’s a necessity.

Napoleon Hill--Preparation From Thoughts To Reality

Preparation—Thoughts to Plans
Napoleon Hill

“First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; the transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.”

Coach K's on failures

There are thousands of books on success and goal setting. But one of the best leadership books is John Maxwell’s “Failing Forward”. It discusses moving forward and improving from failures. The thing I see more and more in the players we see and coach is that they do not know how to handle the tough things in their lives. For some reason, maybe partly our fault they expect everything to come easy. But life isn’t easy and the game of basketball isn’t easy.
Just came across some book notes and wanted to share.

From “A March To Madness” by John Feinstein
Re: Coach Krzyzewski
His experience at West Point taught him to deal with failure. Military academies force yo to deal with failure early on because they believe it is the only way to teach you how to succeed when failure seems inevitable.
At Army, everyone had one talent above all others: Toughness. So, that was what he emphasized.
He always believed that failure makes people stronger.