Not for the first time, I’m trying something different with regards to the content I’m putting out this week. I’m going to break down a few of my favourite books, the ones that have had a lasting impact on my day to day life. Before we jump in, I’m going to set the tone for the types of books you can expect me to discuss here and in future blogs. I read biographies and educational material. The educational books can be anything from books on improving relationships like Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ or Brett Bartholomew’s ‘Conscious Coaching’ to books that introduce me to completely new concepts such as business and management like in Lee Cockerell’s ‘Creating Magic’. I’m not a huge fan of fiction so you won’t find any of those books here. I’m pretty excited to share this week’s content with all of you because of how much influence these books in particular have had on me.
A few weeks ago I shared a blog talking about how you need to invest in yourself and at times that means you need to take some time out to invest in your mental health. For me, reading is perfect. I can gain so many nuggets to improve myself while also shutting off from the outside world for 30 minutes. This week, although I had a lot going on that I’d love to share with you guys I just can’t at this moment but the time will come for that. Instead of a life update I’m going to hit you up with some advice. Make stress management your No.1 priority. High stress is a silent killer and presents in so many different ways! It can cause back pain, like it does in me or it can build for years and lead to a stroke. You need to identify your stressors, and manage them or cut them. Reading is one of my favorite ways to manage stress, like I said. Without wasting any more time, here’s a breakdown of my top books.
Win Forever – Pete Carroll
Funny story, I didn’t always like reading. In fact, I used to do everything to get out of reading and would only read what I absolutely had to in order to study for college assignments. Then came along third year of college and we had to read and review a book for something. I figured if I got a book about something I truly was passionate about it would make it a bit easier. Pete Carroll is the head coach for the Seattle Seahawks American football team (For those of you who don’t me, I am a huge Seahawks fan!!). It wasn’t just the name of the book that was intriguing, but also the concept.
Since Carroll became the main man in Seattle, he brought the mantra ‘Always Compete’ and I loved it. This biography tells of Carroll’s life in football. Carroll was an assistant on some pretty impressive staffs in his younger years before getting the opportunity to become a head coach. His first two attempts didn’t go so well and after getting fired by the New England Patriots he found himself at a loss. He tells of how in those years he had no real philosophy when it came to his coaching. He took the next few years out of coaching and wrote down his life manual. If and when Carroll became a head coach again he would now have a philosophy and road map to help guide every process from recruitment to game planning to skill coaching and everything in between. It all boiled down to competition. Carroll believed if you wanted to truly Win Forever, you needed to always compete. Every day you wake up you’re either competing to get better or you’re not.
The idea of having a coaching philosophy resonated with me. After Carroll outlined the way in which all hard decisions could ultimately be guided by a philosophy that truly reflects your personality and beliefs. It’s not as simple as just writing some things down on paper but you need to live out your philosophy every single day. That one single concept has had one of the biggest impacts on how I coach.
Shoe Dog – Phil Knight
Okay, this book is just great. Like, just a really, really great book! For those of you who don’t know, Phil Knight is the man who founded a small athletic shoe company called Blue Ribbon. Ohh and Nike. Honestly, the stories from the early days of Blue Ribbon and the struggles of living on the bread line were fascinating. For me, the impact this book had on me was just that truly anything can happen with enough conviction.
There are always going to be times where you are met with hurdles that make success seem impossible and that you are just doomed to fail but when you really, really believe in an idea and you fight tooth and nail for that dream there is always a way. It might sound cheesy but just reading about everything Knight had to go through just to get Nike off the ground and seeing where it is today, it can’t help but make you feel optimistic!
Legacy – James Kerr
This book was recommended to me from so many other coaches I knew I just had to read it. Legacy outlines the shift in the culture of the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team from a squad with drink and drub problems to the most prolific dynasty in rugby history.
It was fascinating to learn about the culture and how they had to completely rewrite the way things are done. The All Blacks put in a set of rules and principals and they governed everyone in New Zealand Rugby to make sure the culture was intact.
One of my favorite concepts is the idea of leaving something in a better place than when you found it. Every player wants to leave the famous All Blacks jersey in a better place for the next player than when they took it over. One of the more famous ways the All Blacks utilize this concept is by sweeping the sheds. This is simple, two players are designated every single game or training session to clean the dressing rooms after the team is finished. It doesn’t matter if you’re a first time All Black or Dan Carter. When it was your turn, you cleaned up after yourself.
I think the importance here is not to underestimate the impact of culture on a staff, team and overall organization. A good culture can help breed success while a toxic culture leads to nothing but under achievement and failure. There needs to be a conscious effort to develop and nurture culture before it’s too late.
The Energy Bus – Jon Gordon
This was such an easy read and what a quirky book! The energy bus is a story about how your perception is so important and how some people (known as energy vampires) need to be eliminated from your life.
This book was just so good and literally made me stop and consider how much energy I was bringing into my day. Was I adding energy or sucking it out of people?
My favorite lesson in this book is that a situation isn’t going to magically change. It’s up to you to work hard on changing your daily outlook. It’s quite easy to be negative and feel like the world is out to get you but if you work hard at changing your outlook from why is this happening to me to what lesson can I learn from this it can really impact your entire life. I stopped looking at things as struggles and started finding opportunities of growth and opportunities for me to add energy. Honestly, this has been massively impactful. 6AM is often one of the sessions where I am just pumped and smiling and laughing because I know how much a bit of juice is needed at 6AM in the gym. It’s an opportunity for me to set someone’s day up with some positive energy.
That’s all I have folks, I could really do an individual essay on each of these books and talk about the lessons I learned from them have impacted on my coaching and how I draw on information I read in these books for real life scenarios but I know you all don’t have time for that!
Have a gear week folks, please share this with any friends who you think need to know about these books. If you have any questions regarding these books or want me to cover any topics you’re not quite sure of please reach out!
Rory.