Darrin Donnelly
May 31, 2018
I’m currently working on Book No. 5 in the Sports for the Soul series. It’s a book that deals with the inner battle against fear that we all must deal with on a daily basis.
Researching this book has brought me to many different perspectives on how best to deal with the fear that holds us back from the lives we desire to live. One particularly powerful perspective comes from Jocko Willink.
Jocko is a retired Navy SEAL and a bestselling author. Aside from his avid participation in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (he’s a black belt), Jocko isn’t a well-known sports figure (like most of the people written about on this blog). However, his lessons carry over seamlessly into the world of sports. In fact, they can be applied to all areas of life.
Based on his years of combat experience as a Navy SEAL, Willink has a unique perspective on how to deal with fears. His view on what a person should be afraid of is a powerful lesson that we all need to be listening to… [continue reading…]
Darrin Donnelly
May 24, 2018
Bill Snyder was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2015, an extremely rare honor for a still-active coach. His success on the field—engineering the greatest turnaround in college football history at Kansas State—makes him clearly deserving of this honor.
However, a great coach’s legacy goes beyond wins and losses on the field. Truly successful coaches have a lasting impact on their players’ lives outside of the game. The leadership lessons they teach and the effect it has on each player’s life is the true measure of greatness.
A great coach builds great people, not just great players.
Bill Snyder’s emphasis on life values that go beyond the game exemplifies what a great coach should be teaching. [continue reading…]
Darrin Donnelly
May 17, 2018
The more I study successful coaches, the more I recognize the one common philosophy shared by so many of history’s greatest winners: they made a conscious effort to NOT talk about winning.
From John Wooden to Nick Saban, these great coaches concluded that because their players couldn’t always control the final score, talking too much about winning and losing could have a negative effect on their team’s performance.
Instead, these coaches recognized that their players could always control things like effort, attitude, discipline, and focus.
By focusing only on the things one can control, success naturally follow.
Dean Smith, North Carolina’s legendary basketball coach, is another leader who racked up the wins while promoting this success philosophy… [continue reading…]
Darrin Donnelly
May 10, 2018
I write a lot about the positive emotions of optimism, grit, courage, and faith—essential factors that drive any person, team, or organization to success and happiness.
One powerful emotion that isn’t often thought of as “positive” is anger. I think this is because we tend to associate “positive thinking” with happy-go-lucky people who are smiling all the time as they skip their way through life. As you know from my books and articles about positive thinking, such a stereotype is based on a misunderstanding of what positive thinking actually is.
The truth is, anger is a powerful emotion that can be used as the fuel to achieve positive things in life. We see this all the time in sports, business, and society at large. [continue reading…]
Darrin Donnelly
May 3, 2018
When things aren’t going well and we experience a losing streak in life, it can be very difficult to shift our mindset from negative to positive. During tough times, it’s easy to find ourselves focusing on all the things that are going wrong, and never on the things that are going right.
Oddly, it can almost feel “good” to be negative.
It’s as though we don’t want to let go of the negativity. We don’t want to admit that things aren’t as bad as we’ve made them out to be. We refuse to look for solutions and we instead choose to dwell on problems.
Why do we do this? Why is there an almost addictive nature to being negative sometimes? [continue reading…]
Darrin Donnelly
Apr 26, 2018
Joe Torre knows how to win.
As a player, he won a spot on the National League All-Star team nine times. As a manager, Joe Torre won 13 division titles, four World Series championships, and the fifth-most games in the history of Major League Baseball.
Throughout his career, Torre identified several key qualities shared by winners, but there was one single quality that rose above the rest… [continue reading…]
