Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Of the Wrong we are always conscious, of the Right never.”- Thomas Carlyle
Likewise, coaches can be fast tracked when an overlooked recruit develops to his full potential and leads the team to a great season.
Worse, they are fed by attention, be it positive or negative, and enjoy lashing out at those who dare try to change or improve them.
Unfortunately, most educators and educational leaders have two fatal flaws that negate their ability to address this issue. They fail to grasp all of the variables of educational success and they are hopeless fad chasers.
People are clueless about the correlation of effort and result. People don’t prepare for obvious consequences. People disturb others. People constantly seek the easiest path, not the most beneficial path. People have no long term goals.
There is really only one way to consistently succeed in all areas of your life and that is tie your actions to your aims. The way to do that is to have character and mental toughness.
Each day I hope to again realize my character is only as good as it is today.
When the new member is confronted with the fact that The Easy Way is not available, they will often quit and find an organization, activity, or occupation which requires less growth and adaptation.
Once someone has had some success, be it large or small, they frequently get satisfied, even a little lazy.
They think the way they worked yesterday was good enough, so they struggle to work hard today. As a result, they stay still as the humble advance.
Some guys spend a lot of time getting psyched and motivated to get the work done. Some guys spend a lot of time thinking up a good excuse.
One true way you can always differentiate yourself is to work harder than others. Do the work others are too afraid of or too lazy to do.
We can’t imagine that winning takes such a huge sacrifice. We think it is way over the top to expect to have to do so much in order to win.
As a football player you will have to choose when to give up on those things and decide when they are not worth the pain any longer. I guarantee you that decision time will come. That little voice will start chiming in that you need to give up, that this is too hard. It is the voice of The Easy Way. It tells you want you want to hear when you want to hear it.
We all try to get away with completing a task with minimal effort. We are wired to do that.
Like many of our animal instincts, we do better when we overcome them.
Not only that, but once your discipline gets stronger in a given area you find it easier to be disciplined in all aspects of your life.
“The enemy determines when you rest.”- Joseph Joffre
“Our real duty is always found running in the direction of our worthiest desires.” –Randolph Bourne
One day of blowing off the optional leads to days of blowing off the optional. This leads to weeks and years of blowing off the optional. This leaves you way behind those with character and mental toughness at your school or business and other schools and businesses.
If you only do what is mandatory, you are not likely going to get very far. Success in life is optional. Do more, get more. Do less, get less.
“You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.” – Gandhi
He swears it has made a huge impact on other people’s lives as he has relayed it through the years. He said he told all those people that even if you take just a half a step forward to where you want to go you are making progress towards your goal. See sometimes we want to make huge strides and we get hugely disappointed when we can’t. We feel our dreams slipping away. In those moments we lose ourselves, we get frustrated and scared and we settle or give up. But even if you take the initiative to just get a little better, a little further down the road, the dream lives on.
“He who learns must suffer”- Aeschylus
“Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene.” -Arthur Christopher Benson
“We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.”-Elbert Hubbard
“When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you”-Lao Tzu
“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.” –Sun Tzu
Gray or Grey? Even the spelling of the word is a gray/grey area.
People are only confronted if they are being bad; actually, really bad. I say this because on most occasions people will let bad just slip by so they can avoid a confrontation. They only assert themselves when they see truly obnoxious or abhorrent behavior.
“No society can prosper if it aims at making things easier, instead it should aim at making people stronger!!” – Ashoka
The Easy Way is to cheat and get an “A” The Character Way is to do the work and earn a “B”
The Easy Way is to get there first. The Character Way is to make sure others get there too.
