“The people who achieve the most success in life are not those who somehow find a way to avoid making mistakes or encountering obstacles. No, mistakes and obstacles are an unavoidable part of life. The most successful people are those who are willing to keep moving forward after making mistakes. They find a way not to avoid life’s inevitable obstacles but to overcome them!
In a similar way, happiness doesn’t come from living a life free of adversity—a standard that is impossible to achieve. Rather, happiness comes from the contentment of knowing you have what it takes to overcome any adversity that will come your way.
With this in mind, it’s not surprising that psychologists now tell us that the secret to a successful and happy life is something called grit.
Defined as willpower to persevere with passion and a sense of purpose, grit is what matters most in whether a person succeeds or fails. Numerous studies confirm that when it comes to achievement, grit is the difference-maker. Contrary to popular opinion, even a person’s IQ, talent, and upbringing takes a backseat to grit on the road to achieving one’s goals. ...
Consider this book an instruction manual for getting back to the values that truly lead to success and developing the type of old school grit that will get you through anything.”
~ Darrin Donnelly from Old School Grit
This is the second book in Darrin Donnelly’s great Sports for the Soul series.
As I mentioned in our Notes on the first book in the series (called Think Like a Warrior), I read ALL SIX (!) of the books in the series in less than a week. I highly recommend ALL of them. (Get a copy of this book here.)
I loved the first one and, with each book I read, I got more and more impressed with Donnelly’s ability to share grounded, scientifically-valid wisdom within the context of incredibly (!) inspiring fables. Think: If Paulo Coelho wrote sports fables. (They’re truly that good.)
This book, as you can probably imagine by the title, is all about how to build GRIT. It features an NCAA basketball coach named Coach Flanagan in his 43rd and final season writing letters to his grandchildren about how to develop grit in their lives via fifteen different rules.
Coach Flanagan is a blend of John Wooden’s old-fashioned morals, Mike Ditka’s no-nonsense persona, Lou Holtz’s can-do optimism and strict discipline, and Vince Lombardi’s no-excuses, high expectations, never-back-down attitude. In other words, he’s awesome.
The book is PACKED with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!
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