Think Like a Warrior: The Five Inner Beliefs That Make You Unstoppable (Sports for the Soul Book 1)

by Darrin Donnelly

Success is a choice. Whether you succeed or fail is primarily determined by the beliefs you choose to hold about yourself and the world around you.

your mindset is determined by your inner beliefs—beliefs that you get to freely choose.

this unstoppable mindset as “the warrior mindset.”

did this for the same reason that the field of sports psychology is referred to as “the science of success.”

the sports world the most reliable testing ground for self-improvement principles.

anyone with a big dream and the desire to be successful.

the seasons of life we all must go through when trying to master a new skill, achieve a new goal, or rebound from a setback.

because they are trained in an incredibly rigorous way and are constantly engaged in physical, mental, and spiritual combat.”

How does a man tell the woman he’s supposed to protect and provide for that he has failed to live up to all the promises he made her?

For the first time in my life, I was surrendering and admitting to myself that I was a failure. I was a defeated man and I didn’t know what to do next.

They called me an “offensive genius,”

I was so full of swagger. I believed everything the press was saying about me.

Especially if you had a “systematic edge” like I did.

Arrogance

In just twelve weeks, I’d gone from the confident genius who was taking the NFL by storm to the immature egomaniac who didn’t know how to be a head coach.

Whatever edge I thought I had, the football world had caught up with it and shut it down.

To make matters worse, the interim coach who replaced me to finish out the season for the Dolphins won three of his last four games.

Apparently, my reputation had trickled down from the NFL and into the premier college jobs as well.

wrecked with self-doubt.

Regardless of whether she believed in me or not, I had stopped believing in myself.

questioning my judgement?

Starting tomorrow morning, we all have to do whatever—and I mean whatever—it takes to win.

From here on out, every single thing you do and every single thing I do must be about one thing and one thing only: winning at all costs.”

Every time I saw Cindy and Beth, I got angrier at myself for the position I had put them in. I couldn’t face them tonight. I needed to be alone.

How could YOU let this happen to me?

I’ve been humbled, I’ve learned my lessons. I’ve already been fired once. Couldn’t you make it just a little easier on me this time? It’s not just me who is getting hurt; I have a family that is suffering with me. Do you have to kick a man when he’s down?!

I was directing these questi...

spiritual matters were low on my list of priorities.

I was directing all my anger at a God I didn’t think much about.

God, if you’re there, please help me. - What a joke, if God wanted to help you he wouldn’t have let this happen in the first place. -...

God, I don’t know why this is happening, but I need your help. I’ve tried to do it all on my own and it hasn’t worked. If you’re there, PLEASE help me. I don’t know what to do or where to turn.

Be logical. If God IS in control of such things, he obviously doesn’t like you much. Look at what he’s doing to you and your family. If he’s supposed to be your father, he must be a neglectful one.

God, if you’re there please answer me. I have nowh...

This was the first time I said out loud what I had been feeling inside for months.

I’ve bankrupted my family. I can’t look my wife and little girl in the eye because of the shame I feel. My wife put her faith in me and I’ve let her down.

“You want to quit,” he said. It was a statement, not a question.

“I don’t want to quit. I want to win.

And I want to win now.

My players and coaches have lost faith in me. I hate to admit it, but I’ve lost faith in myself.

“That’s why I’m here.”

like the old home you miss long after you’ve upgraded to a much nicer one.

For some inexplicable reason, the fact that I was having a conversation with a man who had been dead for more than five years in a gym that had only existed 2,000 miles away didn’t register with me as absurd.

I had a sense that this moment was a turning point for my life. Something told me this man—this coach, this angel, whoever he was—had the answers I needed.

He asked me to tell him everything that had led me to this point of despair and I gave him the entire story of my epic fall from the top of my profession.

“I know how you feel.”

I complained and made excuses just like you’re doing right now.”

His words cut me, but I didn’t argue with him. I was complaining and making excuses. I had been for quite some time.

tried to force them to understand things that came naturally to me as a player.

failed to realize that each person is different and that the same approach won’t work for everyone.

“I did indeed,” Wooden said. “I learned some hard lessons quickly and changed my approach. Of course, it took me decades to develop the coaching philosophy that I would become known for.

They forget what a long and difficult journey it had been before I started seeing those kinds of results.