Jim Rohn - Developing a Winning Attitude

Reading up on the great motivational and business speaker, Jim Rohn. He states that in order to fulfill your success and happiness goals, you must first have the right attitude. He also believes that the right attitude is critical for tapping into your potential. As coaches, we strive to achieve this every day with ourselves and our team. The following are four points Jim Rohn uses to harness that potential and make our goals attainable.

Use the past as a learning tool. “We must not beat ourselves to death with past mistakes, faults, failures and losses.” The greatest opportunity today brings with it “is the opportunity to begin the process of change.”

Adopt a new attitude. It can be about “who we are, what we are, what we want and what we are going to do. Today can also be exactly like yesterday, and the day before; it’s all a question of attitude.”

“Clearly visualize your future and draw inspiration from it.”

Develop self-awareness. “As we learn more about who we are, we begin to make better choices and decisions for ourselves and about ourselves. As our choices improve, so do our results, and as our results improve, so does our attitude.”

PreSeason Conditioning - 20 in 20

This is a conditioning drill I've used for several years. 20 sets of lines, suicides, horses, or whatever you call them, in 20 minutes. While at Eastern Washington University, we required all of our players to run the 20 in 20 until every one of them made their time individually. At Texas Lutheran, this drill was used as a reward for behavior we deemed to be outside of our expectations.

Set the game clock at 20 minutes and start the clock. At the appropriate times listed below, players begin their running. They have until the end of the minute to complete one rep. For example: the first rep begins at 19:43 on the clock and they have until 19:00 on the clock to complete the first set.

Here are the times that players begin their run:
20:00 - 19:42 rest
19:43 - 19:00 (17 seconds of rest)
18:43 - 18:00 (17 seconds of rest)
17:43 - 17:00 (19 seconds of rest)
16:41 - 16:00 (19 seconds of rest)
15:41 - 15:00 (19 seconds of rest)
14:41 - 14:00 (21 seconds of rest)
13:39 - 13:00 (21 seconds of rest)
12:39 - 12:00 (21 seconds of rest)
11:39 - 11:00 (23 seconds of rest)
10:37 - 10:00 (23 seconds of rest)
9:37 - 9:00 (23 seconds of rest)
8:37 - 8:00 (25 seconds of rest)
7:35 - 7:00 (25 seconds of rest)
6:35 - 6:00 (25 seconds of rest)
5:35 - 5:00 (27 seconds of rest)
4:33 - 4:00 (27 seconds of rest)
3:33 - 3:00 (27 seconds of rest)
2:33 - 2:00 (29 seconds of rest)
1:31 - 1:00 (29 seconds of rest)
0:31 - 0:00

10-Point Ethics Checklist

A very timely discovery from my Ethics instructor. This is originally from Michael Fortin's blog in which he shares one of his student's, Darrin Clement, 10-Point Ethics Checklist. Since we have seen over this summer some poor choices by coaches, I felt this was something important to share with you.

The 10-Point Ethics Checklist
1. The Golden Rule - Would I want people to do this to me?

2. The Fairness Test - Who might be affected and how? Is this fair to everyone?

3. The 'What if Everybody Did This?' Test - Would I want everyone to do this? Would I want to live in that kind of world?

4. The Truth Test - Does this action represent the whole truth and nothing bu the truth?

5. The Parents Test - How would my parents feel if they found out about this? What advice would they give me?

6. The Children Test - Would I be willing to explain everything about this to my kids and expect them to act in the same way?

7. The Religion Test - Does this go against my religion?

8. The Conscience Test - Does this go against my conscience? Will I feel guilty?

9. The Consequences Test - Are there possible consequences of this action that would be bad? Would I regret doing this?

10. The Front Page Test - How would I feel if my action were reported on the front page of my hometown newspaper?