Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Dan John
Read between
January 2 - January 30, 2020
“Show up!” is the first of my three “secrets” of success: 1. Show up! 2. Don’t quit. 3. Ask questions.
Cervantes tells us, “It’s the road, not the inn,” and it is always fun to quote that line…but difficult to live it.
“If you ain’t assessing, you’re guessing.” I like that and, yes, it is true.
Constant assessment is a pillar of proper coaching.
As a coach, over and over I emphasize the word “decision.” It means, literally, “to cut off.” As a coaching staff, we “cut off” options and decide to go in this or that direction.
“No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” ~ Helmuth von Moltke the Elder This is why I don’t like training in perfect conditions or training at the same time every day. I have lifted and thrown in competition at eight in the morning. I have deadlifted at 3:00 a.m. I have competed in rain, snow and fog so bad the officials couldn’t see the discus after it left my hand.
My ability to ignore what works is now the cornerstone of my lectures. I think we all do it: What works is often so basic, fundamental and, frankly, boring, that we all fall in love with the bright new shiny promise and fancy promotion. It never works; focus on what works.
Sadly, even with great mentors, I still often ignored the map. Coach Maughan told me in 1977, “Lift three days a week; throw four days a week for the next eight years and you will be great.” So, I lifted six days a week and threw twice a day trying to get there in four years.
recovering from overtraining—and the surgeries that go with it—takes more time and effort than appropriate training does.
I fell for magic dust over and over again in my career. Not one thing outperformed good food and smart training.
At the Olympic training center, the nutritionist told us to eat “protein and veggies” and “drink water.”
Everything works. But the things that work day in and day out over a career are going to be the fundamentals, the basics.
“Success is really nothing more than the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. This means that any person who knows what they are doing and where they are going is a success. Any person with a goal toward which they are working is a successful person.”
The next step after a peak…is a cliff.
“The next step after a peak is always down; you can either step back or fall off.”
“Make yourself a slave to good habits.” “Little and often over the long haul.”
Second grade was the best three years of my life.)
For those of you who don’t pray or meditate, this can also be alone time or enjoying nature or art. That would NOT include binge watching subscription TV.
If you want to get strong, lift weights. Repeat.
Good people can do dumb things. Memorize this. It will apply to you too, by the way.
Dick summed up the O lifts with three key principles: Leg strength Pulling strength Tranquil mind
the Four Fs: Fitness Finance Food Friends
British statistician George Box famously wrote: “All models are wrong, but some are useful.”
“Little and often over the long haul,” seems the cornerstone of the Four Fs.
Little and often over the long haul Focus on quality Foundations first Master the basics
Everything is connected to everything else. Everything must go somewhere. Nature knows best. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
Much of what I teach in workshops are thinly veiled economics lectures.
First, the baby steps: Copy both sides of everything in your wallet; put it in an envelope and put it someplace you can access it if you lose your wallet. If you travel, make another set (including your passport) and give it to someone you can trust to help on the road. It’s probably a good idea to have a master password document and have that available too. Schedule an annual physical, dental appointment and eye exam. No matter how much you make in income or enjoy in various forms of savings, not having your health will drain everything. This is a good idea for everyone in your family too.
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Take an inventory of everything you have: all the stuff, cars, places and money you can tally. Then, total all you owe in loans and credit and whatever else you might owe to someone or something else.
Tracking your cash flow is the first step to being debt free and to achieving your financial goals.
“Stop spending money on your assets.”
Your assets might be crippling your goals and dreams. Think about those things you have that eat away at your happiness.
“Follow your bliss.” Later, Campbell insisted he should have said, “Follow your blisters.”
Follow your bliss. Be sure you find a way to enjoy 24 hours a day…every day. Life is too short not to love what you do.
Work. Rest. Play. Pray.
the Four Fs “Do This” list: Food: eat protein, essential fats, water, veggies Finance: be debt free, build an emergency fund, purchase quality goods and services Fitness: get 8–9 hours sleep every night, daily walking, do the fundamental human movements Friends: in relationships, focus on those “worth the name”
“The boat is safer anchored at the port; but that’s not the aim of boats.” ~ Paulo Coelho
This section, “On Investing,” will remain true for a long time. Sir John Templeton said it better than I can. When asked about investing money, he gave two words of practical advice: “Do it.” Now, having said that, there will be questions that will arise: first, why am I telling an eighth grader to invest? Well, any money you invest early in your life will have that wonderful gift called “time” to earn more and more and more for you...without you doing a thing. The second reason is simple: You must always look long term in life. Invest in stocks, unless you really know something about another
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Be careful of what you want as you might get it. On a date in a hamburger place surrounded by varsity football players, I described…in EXACT detail…my life decades later.
For the chronically overtrained, not overtraining feels wrong. But it’s right.
Bounce. It’s a combination of tumbling, grass drills, get-back-ups, Turkish getups and resilience. The moment he said it, I adopted it.
Most people know what to do. Doing it, well, doing it is the key to success. Helping people “do it” is coaching.
I can be part of the solution or part of the problem.
Those who are gifted with genius or genius genetics often don’t understand the fumbles, foibles and failures of the rest of us.
Makes me sound like an ass but it is what it is, I coach over people's head bc I'm naturally smart, this makes me dumb if you understand what it really takes to be an effective leader, if you have to dumb it down, so what? if that's what it takes to make an impact
Proactive, not reactive. Winter is coming. Christmas is coming. Thanksgiving, birthdays and anniversaries are always coming.
Got me again. I fuck up holidays constantly, it's coming again, what's it gonna be
Constant assessment Constant upgrading
Constant upgrading, as I review my time with Fitz, can be summed by his frequently used statement: “Don’t bring problems, bring solutions.”
The CIA’s Simple Sabotage Field Manual: A Timeless Guide to Subverting Any Organization with “Purposeful Stupidity” (1944)
Maybe fun to read
With my hand on my heart and the other on The Bible, I swear this is how most organizations work.
“And that’s how things are. A day is like a whole life. You start out doing one thing, but end up doing something else, plan to run an errand, but never get there…And at the end of your life, your whole existence has the same haphazard quality too. Your whole life has the same shape as a single day.” ~ Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park
