Sports for the Soul

If you want to change your life, you must first change the way you think.

As so many of the world’s top coaches and achievers have taught, your attitude towards life—what you think of yourself and the world around you—will eventually create the conditions you experience. And the attitude you choose to adopt is completely up to you.

One of the most effective ways to change your attitude is to make promises to yourself. A promise to yourself should be viewed as an ironclad contract that you MUST follow through on.

The promises you make to yourself will take goal-setting and self-talk to a whole new level.

Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden recommended the following nine promises that should be made by anyone seeking happiness and success… [continue reading…]

Augie Garrido is a baseball legend. His 1,975 wins makes him the winningest coach in Division 1 college baseball history.

During his unparalleled career, Garrido’s teams earned 15 trips to the College World Series. He won five National Championships and he’s one of only two baseball coaches to win national titles at two different schools.

Before all the championships, however, Garrido’s legendary career began with a rough start. [continue reading…]

With 24 PGA Tour wins and nine Major championships on his resume, Gary Player is one of the most successful golfers in the sport’s history.

Famous for how much he emphasized the importance of physical conditioning to give himself an edge in the game of golf, Gary Player was also adamant about the importance of mental conditioning.

Like so many top achievers, Player believes a positive mental attitude is essential to success—on and off the golf course.

He believes so strongly in the power of positive thinking that he goes out of his way to protect himself and his environment from negativity and pessimism… [continue reading…]

Dr. Bob Rotella is perhaps the world’s most famous sports psychologist. He’s worked closely with many of the world’s top golfers, as well as top coaches, musicians, writers, and business leaders.

His decades of research and first-hand experience with top performers have made it clear to him that top achievers think differently—much differently—than everyone else.

A topic that Dr. Rotella returns to again and again is the importance of confidence and optimism.

“People with confident, optimistic outlooks tend to succeed,” Dr. Rotella says. “People who are pessimistic, who lack confidence, tend to fail.”

Dr. Rotella is also adamant that confidence is something that anyone can develop. One must CHOOSE to be confident. He insists that confidence isn’t something that you receive after you win, it’s something that you must develop in order to win.

Here’s how you develop it… [continue reading…]

Nick Saban has now won six college football National Championships. That ties him with Bear Bryant for the most national titles in the poll era of college football.

Every single player Saban has recruited in his 11 years at Alabama has won a National Championship. That’s unreal. By any objective measure, Nick Saban has established himself as the most successful coach in modern college football history.

While Saban’s extraordinary success can be attributed to many factors—such as his commitment to the process, his approach to positive thinking, and his relentless work ethic—one of the often-overlooked keys to the championship culture Saban has built is the “no retreat” mindset he has instilled in his players… [continue reading…]