HOW TO BE A WINNER –

WHY WINNERS WIN!

The top 5% do 95% of the winning. Why, because they set goals.
One knows they are going to win, not cocky, just fact.
Expectations become internalized.

Mental Management:
A. Conscious (thoughts)
B. Sub-conscious (skills)
C. Self-Image (habits, attitudes & how we picture ourself)

KEYS
1. One can only concentrate on one thing at a time.
2. What you cause someone to picture is important (Black Cows; don't spill the coffee)
3. Sub-conscious mind is the source of all your power.
4. SC moves you to the conscious mind.
5. Self image and performance are EQUAL. To change your performance, change your self-image.
6. Replace the self-image you have with the self-image you want.
7. When your conscious, sub-conscious and self-image are all aligned and balanced, good performance is easy.
8. Use principle of reinforcement - (use positive prediction & be careful who & what you talk about. If you worry about something, its likely to happen).
9. Use REHEARSAL - MIND can't tell between actual vs. imaginary.
10. Deal with pressure - by controlling your anxiety and arousal - through rehearsal.

GOAL(Is it achievable or a pipe dream?)
1. Decide what you want
2. Decide when you get it
3. List the pay-value (what will it cost you in sacrifice)
4. Determine the obstacles in your way
5. What is your plan to get your goal?
6. Ask important questions:
A. Will the plan work?
B. Can I work the plan?
C. Is the prize worth the price?
7. Schedule it!
8. Start Now!
9. Set your next goal before complete your current goal.
10. Never, never quit.


MENTAL PROGRAM
1.Point of initiation (starts process, be consistent with this)
2. Point of attitude (confidence, gear up the sub-conscious. Begin visualization)
3. Point of direction (concentration on task at hand and its success, continue visualization)
4. Point of control (focus on preparing to execute the most important part of task, "be loose & quick, see the ball " - for baseball)
5. Point of focus (executing your technique "get a good pitch and cut the ball in half.")

TRAINING (TO BUILD UP THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND)
1. Catch yourself doing something right (positive reinforcement)
2. Train 4 or 5 days a week.
3. Wherever you are, be all there.
4. Rehearse game situation within the practice.
5. When you are practicing well, keep it going... (shoot a lot/hit a lot, etc).
6. We raise or lower ourselves to the standards we are around.
7. Make a bet with yourself and when you win it, pay off.

TO IMPROVE -
1. You must be willing to change!
2. Identify the attitudes and habits you need to change
3. Set up a new self image that is in direct conflict with your old habits and attitudes.
4. Exchange the old self-image for the new self-image.

SEVEN STRATEGIES OF THE MENTALLY TOUGH
1. Principle of transportation (adapt and change habits quickly)
2. Your past is not a prison (you can win the big one)
3. Imitate the champions
4. Train hard, compete easy
5. Visualize before game day
6. Take all problems as positives
7. HAVE BIG DREAMS

Thanks to Lanny Bassham, 1976 Olympic Gold Medalist marksmanship and his book, With Winning in Mind

It's All About ABC (Always Be Closing)...

In the usual banter of cellphone discussion with business partner - one key tenant of business was refreshed in my head today.

It's not about the product. It's not about supply or demand. It's not about the price you bought it at.

It's all about the sale.

Instead of "well bought - is well sold" think - "Well sold makes everything else fall into line."

We need to be taught how to sell. Not how to buy.

ABC (always be closing) the sale. Know your exit strategy. Have it planned before you enter any purchase.

Pitching 10 Commandments - Baseball Pitching

Ok, I'm going to try to regularly contribute to this blog. The best thing will be that we can go back and find the information when we need it. Here is a Top Ten list of pitching tips that I have compiled and come up with:

1. Your best pitch is strike one. (thank you/hat tip to Todd Stottlemyre)

2. Believe in the 4 C's (Concentration, Composure, Control and Confidence)

3. Work quickly to give your defense a chance to play on their toes and field well.

4. When ahead 0-2 and 1-2 in the counts, miss in the right spots.

5. When in doubt, bust the hitter in on the hands.

6. However, the low and away corner shall always be a golden target.

7. Wind up slowly to throw the ball quickly; and work quickly while the the hitter is working slowly.

8. In high school, you can win with two pitches you control; with three pitches you will be Lights Out!

9. Make your own breaks (field your position, work your pickoffs and get ahead of the hitters)

10. NO WALKS!

Teammates

As someone who has played on, coached and watched winning teams - as well being involved in a couple successful businesses, here is my top 10 points on how to be - not just a good, but a "GREAT TEAMMATE"

1. Display loyalty to team at all times.

2. It's not about you, it's about US.

3. A premium is placed on reliability.

4. One needs to LISTEN as well as speak.

5. ANTICIPATE situations and be proactive, not reactive.

6. Get "outside" your world by taking acceptable risks.

7. Pick up your fellow teammates with your acts and emotions.

8. Challenge your teammates (push them to overachieve), and challenge yourself in the process.

9. CARE about you and your teammates performances.

10. YOU will only be successful in a team atmosphere if your teammates are successful.

Contempt for Contempt?

As we approach the fall and "back to school," I've been thinking about angles and view points that I want to share with my high school students that I teach. I'm scheduled to teach US/North American history from the age of exploration up through the 1800s. I am also scheduled to teach a class called "World Affairs" that deals with things currently going on around the globe.

This spring marked the 19th anniversary of my graduation from college (University of Delaware BA 1989) and 24th since high school (Toms River South 1986) - and in some of my free time I've spent reflecting where I have come from, where I am at and where am I heading (in both individual terms, family terms and societal terms).

So here is the residue of my thoughts - US society and culture today lacks something that has been a game-changer throughout history. Now when I say a "game changer" I mean in both positive and negative ways. So what is it that we lack -at least on a scale large enough for us to get of our collective rear ends and do something?

We lack contempt. According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contempt) contempt is

1: the act of despising : the state of mind of one who despises : disdain b: lack of respect or reverence for something

2: the state of being despised3: willful disobedience to or open disrespect of a court, judge, or legislative body <contempt of court>.

Didn't colonists in the 1770s have contempt for the British Crown and its proxies? Didn't the Union and Confederacy have contempt for each other's points of view in the 1860s (civil war)? Was there not contempt between Western Europe and Germany in both wars? Contempt existed between Japan and its imperialistic foes in the 1930s & early 1940s. Atomic bombs do not get dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki without contempt. Al Qaeda defines contempt in their vicious attacks in the 1990s and on 9/11/2001.

In words, written down, this all seems pretty obvious. But, in a moment of self-reflection as we stare down an age of "political correctness" perhaps one of the burning motivators of human beings (contempt) has been watered down and eradicated. Perhaps it has resulted in turning human beings into sheep.

There is a dark side to contempt (racism/genocide/war), but is there a darker side to political and societal impotence?

Back in Action

Ok all those who may stumble upon this blog, I am about to venture out and begin posting.

I usually have time in the summer to do this type of thing and I am going to try to stick to a couple basic topics.

As we get ready to start another school year this Sept, which will be my 16th as a teacher - I'm going to touch on some educational type stuff and some history stuff (which I have been theorizing the past few days).

The other things I may post on are stocks/finance/business/sports/baseball.

My first, next post will be definitely a history based one for anybody who may come across this rusty prose.

Innovate - it don't cost anything

One of the things that I'm personally looking forward to is .. Progress. Innovation. New techniques. New music. New style. Something different.

In these hard economic times, necessity (the old mother of invention) will bring us some stuff, some culture, some style that we have yet to experience. It might be half-recycled. It might be a quarter-replay of some earlier motif. But something new will come, because like I sorta said - it don't cost anything.

Run-DMC, rap music and hip-hop came out of the late 1970s, early 1980s. Guitar became electrified in the late part of the Great Depression of the 1930s. What will come from the recession/depression of 2008-09? Only time will tell.

It's all about the finish

Sometimes, we get lost in the journey. We have grand expectations. We have the latest technology and gear. We map it all out.

And, somewhere along the way, it all falls in the gutter.

So then it's back to the drawing board - and in the words of the Kinks & Ray Davies - time to "Do it all over again."

So why am I harping on this?

I just watched the baseball team I coach, play a roller coaster of a game and tie our opponents, 12-12. We had the big lead (5-0); We gave up big runs (then 6-5). We had the clutch homer to tie (6-6). We jumped ahead again (9-6). Set them down in order in the sixth with blazing fastballs and three straight strikeouts. We fell apart, with the same exact pitcher and defense (12-9 to fall behind). Then we staged the heroic rally to tie it at 12, before being set down. All in a scrimmage baseball game that will be forgotten sooner than anyone will realize.

The point that should not be forgotten, is - if we could have found a way to finish the job, complete the mission, bring about resolution - we would have proven to be winners. Winners find a way to finish on the winning side. They don't make mistakes. They don't give away the game. The put pressure on opposing teams and opponents.

Winners finish. Winners don't go home 12-12.

Blinding By the Light

Ok blogging world, here goes my latest attempt to pursue a goal that started more than 20+ years ago when I was taking journalism classes at the University of Delaware - a goal to write on a regular basis and have people read what I write.

The 2nd part of that statement will be the challenge!

I chose to title this entry "Blinded by the Light" after the Bruce Springsteen penned song. The song, with its jangly guitar riff opening, introduced the world to Bruce Springsteen as it is the first song on his first album "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ." I look at it as representing life, a baby coming out of the womb - and behold - being blinded by the light. Or someone on the way to stardom.

Ironically, as I drove my wife to the hospital on the morning of Feb. 6, 1997, when she was to be induced into labor - as we turned on the radio dial to one of NY City's rock'n'roll radio stations - the first sounds we heard was - you guessed it - "Blinded by the Light." A few hours later, we were parents as we witnessed the birth of twin daughters.