Are you looking to build your resilience to the challenges you face?
Do you like short, powerful stories?
Stories can inspire us, they convey hope and help us find meaning in the things that challenge us. Stories are a great way to connect with others and teach us about ourselves. They can also help us tap into reserves of resilience and mental toughness we didn't know we possess.
This collection of 20 stories will help you do just that.
Read MENTAL TOUGHNESS METAPHORS and let the twenty stories and reflective questions uncover resilience you didn't know you had.
It's like Aesops Fables for the 21st Century.
Are you looking to build your resilience to the challenges you face?
Do you like short, powerful stories?
Stories can inspire us, they convey hope and help us find meaning in the things that challenge us. Stories are a great way to connect with others and teach us about ourselves. They can also help us tap into reserves of resilience and mental toughness we didn't know we possess.
This collection of 20 stories will help you do just that.
Read MENTAL TOUGHNESS METAPHORS and let the twenty stories and reflective questions uncover resilience you didn't know you had.
It's like Aesops Fables for the 21st Century.
Former Grand Slam Champ and world number one tennis player, Boris Becker was being interviewed on the radio one day.
“Have you always been better than everyone else”, asked the interviewer?
“No,” he replied. When he was young, he had been identified as a prospect, although other lads his age were better and some more naturally talented. He added that sometimes he had to play the best girls because the boys were too good for him.
“So what happened to those boys,” asked the interviewer, “how did you go on to gain so much success and they didn’t?”
“Well, they just didn’t make it. Even with their natural talent, they didn’t have what it takes, because it takes much more than that,” he replied.
“So what does it take then?”, asked the interviewer.
“You’ve got to want it badly enough.”
“So, that’s the secret? Wanting it badly enough?”
“No, not just that. It takes discipline. No matter how much God-given talent, you must have the discipline to nurture and develop what talent you have. You’ve got to decide what’s most important to you and give up many other things so you can focus on that.”
“So, that’s the secret, then, discipline?”
“No, not entirely. There’s another and this is harder than the first two. It’s humility. You need humility, no matter how good you think you are. You need humility to listen to your coaches, to take their advice, to test and try new things and to admit you don’t know everything. To accept that maybe you aren’t quite as good as you think you are or would like to be just yet.
“These are the three secrets to my success,” said Becker.
. . .
Primary Source: Nick Owen
Mental Toughness Factors: Challenge, Commitment
My takeaways:
Talent will only get you so far. Commitment and mindset are often more important.
No person is an island. No matter how good you are, you’ll need the support of other people to achieve your potential.
Questions to consider:
Do you have all three?
Which one would you say you need to improve on?
If you improved that by just 10%, what difference would that make?
This book turned out to be a huge surprise! I say that because I wasn't expecting it to be written so engagingly--and for it to make such a deep impact on me. It's unlike any other self-help book that I've read so far.
I could relate to quite a few of the 20 stories in this collection. I found myself nodding, saying to myself, "That's right. I do this/I should do this." This doesn't happen to me often. It's safe to say that I will be re-reading this book often. It's worth every word and there are some powerful lessons in there for us to absorb and put into practice.
The stories are structured in an interesting way: the author narrates the story first, then lists his takeaways from it, and finally asks the reader a series of questions to help him/her really think about the message in the story. The stories are deceptively simple but carry a deep, powerful and impactful message. They're also actionable--you can begin working on yourself in small ways to assimilate the learnings and see the results in real life.
My favorite stories are: The Three Steps to Success, The Grass Parable, The Chinese Farmer, The Lesson of the Archer, The Old Crocodile, The Black Dot, Are you a Carrot, an Egg or a Coffee Bean? The Cricketer shows how too much mental toughness can be detrimental. This is another amazing aspect of the book. The author isn't aggressively promoting his idea of emotional strength. Instead, he's gently guiding us towards it and explaining why moderation is key. God and the Farmer is such a tongue-in-cheek story that made me laugh out loud in the end.
I loved the overall tone of the book. Self-help books can sometimes get promotional, overly persuasive, or eager. Mental Toughness Metaphors is gentle, "let-me-show-you-how," balanced, and realistic. It's a short book that you can finish reading in a single sitting, but I'd advise you to take your time and read only a couple of stories at a time. It will help you appreciate the message better and reflect deeply on the takeaways and questions.
What are you waiting for? Go get a copy!