Coach Kip

What can Top Coaches teach you?

All top coaches are different. That is usually what makes them a top coach. Whether it is Coach Krzyzewski at Duke, Coach Belichick at New England, or your high school coach like , they all have a few of the same characteristics that we can learn from.

Set Goals

All coaches work around setting goals. They also set goals in a particular order: Biggest to Smallest. The biggest goal is always the same: Win a Championship. After they have set this goal and made it public they then forget about it. What good coaches do is set as big a goal as possible. Then they set goals that will lead up to that big goal. Once the goals are set they work only on the next step or the next goal. They completely forget about the biggest goal and focus intently on the task at hand. By doing this they are consistently the best in their sport.

Have a Plan

Once goals are set all coaches sit down and plan. They do their best to outline the best plan that they can. They also know that even the best laid plans can go out the window once the action begins. The point is not that they have a plan just to have one, but they make the plan flexible enough that it can change. I would recommend that everyone go to a big time college, or a pro practice someday. Most have open practices at some point. Watch how rigid the time is kept, how players and coaches move from task to task in a fluid motion. Notice how much they can get done in a planned two hour time frame. It is very impressive.

Practice Then Perform

Once the goals are set they reflect on what is needed now. Then they practice those skills that are needed for the next step. While practicing these skills they know that it will lead them to achieving the next goal, and ultimately the ultimate goal. Once they have practiced they perform. They know that without practice they will not be able to perform to their highest standard. They also know if they do not have to perform at some point they will never get better. Practice hones skills, performance makes champions.

Reevaluate

Once they perform all good coaches take time to reflect on what is needed next. They reset small goals, evaluate themselves, their assistants, and their team on whether or not they reached any of the preliminary goals. Many great coaches will win games and be completely disappointed in their performances because they did not reach goals that were set. Remember small goals are set to reach bigger goals. They can perform and win, but if they do not reach the goals that they have set for themselves then they set up their practices and new goals so that when they perform again they can reach their goals.

Never Give Up

Many times in games when the top coaches teams are winning by a large margin you will hear the commentators saying ‘look that coach is coaching right to the end’. It is part of never giving up. It is part of doing everything for one reason, to become the best that they can be. They also know that one loss or one setback does not make the entire season. Seasons are long. There are not many sports where you have to be perfect to be able to win the championship. If there is a setback and goals are not reached they do a simple thing, practice harder, push more, work harder, but never ever give up.

Recruit the Best

All coaches know that they cannot do it alone. They all need good assistants and good players. I have heard it said ‘We can sit around a talk X’s and O’s all day and we would get a lot accomplished. But when it comes down to it if your X’s and O’s are bigger, faster, and stronger than my X’s and O’s then I don’t have much of a chance of winning’. The same can be true for you. It does not matter if you are trying to make yourself better in business, or if you are just trying to make yourself the best you can be if you have yourself surrounded by losers it is going to be difficult to make yourself better. Surround yourself with winners, surround yourself with the best people possible. You control your own destiny, decide what you want and find similar people to help you achieve those goals.

Watch and observe. You can learn a lot about life from many many different sources.

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Who owns your life? You do. Actually the only thing you truly own is your life. I got that from a Los Lobos song called A Matter of Time. It is a great song.

It struck me that too many people go through life thinking that they are a part of life, that life owns them, they can only react to what life gives them. It is completely the opposite.

In the path of discovery we must first go through this step. We must, as Dr. Phil says, ‘get control of ourselves before we can ever begin to grow’. Of course I am paraphrasing but it seems that the messages are almost all the same.

It does not matter who you talk to, or listen to, or watch, they have a similar message. Life does not take you where you want to go as the popular saying goes, you take life where you want it to go. You own it.

Take control.

Take charge.

Live life and have fun.

Conceive It, Believe It, Achieve It

Coach Kip

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Life takes place in a 6 inch space. That is the space between your ears. Life happens in your brain, and your brain only. It is your choice to have and do what you want. You make the decisions either consciously or unconsciously. You control everything you do by your big, beautiful, wonderful, brain.

Garbage In Garbage Out. So why do you do some of those things that bring you things that you don’t want. Garbage In Garbage Out. Look at what you watch on TV. Is it good? Does it have a strong positive message? Do you feel good about yourself after you have watched it? Is it worth watching after all? Most shows on TV do not have a good message. Sitcoms may make you laugh for the half hour that they are on, but what is the humor. It is usually slapstick, and put-down humor. So what do you do when you see your friends? You use slapstick and put-down humor. Sure it was funny when you saw it last night, but is it funny when you put-down a friend just to humor yourself. I hope not. Don’t worry they are probably used to it since it is a good chance that they saw the same show. Garbage In Garbage Out.

Now what if you put some good information into yourself last night. What if you read a good book, or a good blog. What if you looked up some things on YouTube like I posted a few days ago. What if instead of spending $50-$100 a month in cable fees you spent the money on a good personal coach. Maybe a Tony Robbins lecture, or heck maybe you sent an email to Coach Kip to see if he would be willing to chat with you. Positive In Positive Out. What if you gave your friend a compliment the first time you saw them. ‘Hey buddy, nice shirt, where did you get it?’ They may take offense to it at first, expecting a put-down on the other side, but they will get used to it. What if every time you saw them you complimented them? What would happen when your car wouldn’t start the next town over. Would they come. Absolutely they would.

It is up to you to decide. You have to make a conscious effort to help your unconscious brain perform the way you want it to.

Conceive It, Believe It, Achieve It

Coach Kip

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How can the way one think effect everything that happens to them? Is it due to an attitude? Is it a perception? Is it a physical thing that is happening?

The easy answer is yes. It is all those things. Positive thinking effects everything that happens to us, and everything that goes on in our lives. It changes perceptions, it changes attitudes, and it is a physical thing that can manifest into infinite possibilities.

How? Lets take them piece by piece.

Perception

By simply thinking positively you can change the perception of everything. If you are having bad thoughts, negative thoughts you will begin to see the bad and negative things in everything around you. You will see every negative piece of everything. You probably know someone like that. You probably have observed them tear something down that you saw to be really great. They don’t even see the good things. They are blinded by their negativity.

You have probably been in a situation where you are in a good mood and happy. You see all these great and positive things. You are very happy. The negative person with you sees none of that. Your positive thoughts let you see more than what is there. You see the beauty of everything. It is a much happier existence.

Attitude

Thinking positively will change your attitude toward everything. I hope that some of you who are reading this are teachers. Teaching is truly the greatest profession, and it is the least appreciated and least compensated. How do you look at your students? Actually lets take it one step further. How do you look at your low performing students?

If you look at them negatively how will they act? They will act negatively. They will do poorly on test, they will act out in class, they will rebel and you have no idea why. It is because of your subconscious negative attitude toward them. You have already decided that they are going to do negative things. They are simply living down to your expectations. OK not you I know. But you probably know of teachers who are like this.

What if you look at these same low performing students in a very positive light. What if you simply look at these low performing students as great students who have yet to get the information needed to shine? What will they do then? They will start off as a dull light bulb. They will not really know what is going on. They are probably used to having people look at them negatively all their lives. You begin to look at them in a positive light and they do all right but they still are not sure how to act. When they figure it out they begin to shine. Sometimes becoming the best students in your class. They begin to shine like the sun. Why?

It is your attitude. You put that positive attitude in your students through your positive thoughts. It is infectious. They begin to think positively about themselves, and the class. They begin to do well. They are now stars.

Physical Process

So how does your positive thinking transfer into physical things? I am about to get really technical now but stay with me if you are not so technical. It will make sense in the end.

Your brain gives off small electrical pulses when you think a thought. It can actually be measured. There is a great explanation to this in the DVD The Secret. That electrical impulse has to effect something. What does it effect? It effects other electrical impulses around you. It actually makes a small electrical field around you. Now do you want that electrical field to be positive or negative? I prefer it to be positive.

Whoa, that is a little deep. Lets make an example for the guys. Women you can follow along because it is about you to. Guys we have all been in a position where you look across the room and see a beautiful woman. Maybe it happened with your current girlfriend or wife. We see them and make eye contact. Now if we are too desperate she looks away and never looks back. Being desperate is a very negative frequency in thought. Women hate this. But what happens when we are confident, when we are happy/ When we are least expecting it? Don’t we usually seem to meet the best looking women when we are just having fun and least expecting it? Why? Because fun, happiness, and confidence is a very positive thought process. It is also very sexy to women. Am I wrong ladies?

That positive feeling and thought process sends little electrical waves or electrical energy into the air. If you are happy isn’t it usually contagious? How does the good looking woman across the room notice you? It is not because you are being loud and obnoxious. It is because you are sending out the positive wavelength of a physical thought. She is picking up on that.

Try being positive about everything and anything of an entire day. Journal it. See how things have turned out. See how much energy you have at the end of the day. How do you feel? Are you ready for the next day?

Try it, your life will be much different using some positive thought.

Conceive It, Believe It, Achieve It

Coach Kip.

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Where does inspiration come from? Is it something you read, some one you listen to, is it in nature? I think that inspiration comes from you!

Thats right. I think that inspiration comes from inside you. For example. I don’t know how much you read but I read a lot. For the last year and a half I have read almost nothing but business books, success books, and self development books. It may sound boring, but I have a long way to go to get to where I am want to be, besides it is a lot less expensive than a shrink.

So what do I get out of it? I am glad you asked. I get what I need to get at that time. OK that was a little complicated what does that mean?

First I have observed that most books have the same message. So why do I keep reading them over and over again? First off the voice of the writer, or the style of the writing, sometimes strikes a chord when said by one author, but means completely nothing when a different writer says the same thing. When I read Donald Trump’s Think Big and Kick Ass I begin to think big. But when I read Russell Simmons Do You! and he says think big, it does not hit me the same way. Why? Because when I read Donald Trump that is what I expect to get. I was not expecting that from Russell Simmons. I was expecting to get some more insight into my students and hopefully see things they way they do. Instead I got a whole lot more. Russell Simmons had a completely different message saying the same things that I read from everyone else. BTW It is a fantastic book and everyone should read it.

Second, while I am reading a book I may not be ready for the message that the author is trying to tell me. I could read it 100 times but if I am not ready for the message I will never get it. So when people tell me I should not read all those books because they all say the same thing I tell them “Yes but I was not paying attention to the last one.” I wasn’t. I was not ready for the message so I missed it.

Book clubs, and book discussions are a great place to get something that you did not get before. I never really liked Oprah before. I didn’t get her and I really thought that is was just a place where women went to get their daily instruction. Now don’t get me wrong I don’t watch her every day, but my wife watches her often, and when the topic interests me I will tune in for a little while. So I was convinced to join the online discussion on A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (Oprah’s Book Club, Selection 61). What a great experience! For those of you who are not doing so it is not too late to join. We are only on Chapter 2 and you can download all the discussion at Oprah.com in video or podcast form. I get so much more listening to others talk about the book. It is a fantastic experience.

So what is the point? Keep reading, keep learning. Maybe you were not quite ready for the for the message the first time you read or hear something. But maybe now you are. Read as many books as possible, read them often, and re-read them. Take time for yourself to learn. You never know how successful you may become.

Conceive It, Believe It, Achieve It

Coach Kip

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I saw this video on Stumble and then went to YouTube to see if I could find it. So I typed in success to see how far and how hard I would have to look before I found it. I had to look all the way to the bottom of page 5 before I found it. My previous post from TED was on page one.

It is so sad to be in the schools every day and see just how little opportunity that the underprivileged kids have. I don’t just mean black students either. I have Latin Americans (Mexico, Venezuela, Honduras, San Salvador), Kurdish, Africans (Congo, Egypt, Sudan), Laos, White kids, and more. They are all in the same situation. It is not that there are no opportunities, it is that they do not see any opportunities.

So this is the problem. These young, smart, men, and women on these videos are great. They are great role models. They are preaching the right message. They are preaching that everyone has a chance, everyone has a right to succeed and there is a simple way to do so. You work hard, you persevere, you don’t give up, and you simply work through all the negativity.

That is not so easy for these students. I try my best in my class to teach my kids not only Algebra, but to teach these students through education that they have a chance. They just have to work hard, they have to put in the time, they have to do something to be something.

It is great, I see their eyes light up, I see their posture change, they begin to smile, and they go to work.

They act like this because many times this is the only time that they ever have anyone say anything good about them. It is the first time that anyone has ever told them that they have a chance.

But what happens when they leave my class room? They hear profanity in the hall ways, they see their friends cutting up in class, they are told that they don’t have to do their home work. They go home to fatherless and motherless houses. They don’t have family around them when it is time for them to go to bed. They don’t have any positive influences.

They watch negative TV. They listen to negative music (and I don’t mean rap, I mean the violence and the sexual mistreatment in many of the songs that they listen to). They have nothing but negativity in their lives.

So what happens? The next day when they get back to my room they don’t have their work done. As a matter of fact they have not done one problem since they left my room the day before. I say what happened? Why did you not do your work? Do you not remember what we talked about yesterday?

The answers are all the same. “I lost it, I did not know how to do it, it is in my locker, I left it at home.” No, they did not do it. Not because of them, but because of the outside forces.

As a society we need to do something. We need positive role models to overtake all the negativity on the streets and on TV. We need to celebrate the good things that have happened. We need to treat everyone like they are the next best thing to happen.

We need to hold people accountable for who they are.

We need to hold people accountable for who they are.

Read it one more time very slowly.

We need to hold people accountable for who they are.

Break the Cycle.org
See all the Videos here

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I have been working on success and what it actually means to be a success for a while now. If you have been reading my blog you will see that I am far from it, but I am working hard.

While searching for something else (that post will be soon) I found this from TED.

Watch and enjoy and watch out for the CRAP!

Conceive It, Believe It, Achieve It

Coach Kip

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I don’t watch the news for a few reasons. First it has become too opinionated. I don’t care if you are a Republican or a Democrat. I don’t care if you watch CBS or FOX. When was it the right or the responsibility of the news casters to give us their opinion of what is happening? When did they change from giving the facts of the news and what happened? Did I just grow up and realize what is happening? Has this always been this way? If so I just want the facts, I will have my own opinions thank you.

That is actually a secondary reason why I don’t watch the news anymore. The biggest reason is that I am not letting anything that is not positive in my life.

You can live your life how ever you want to live it. I choose to live my life in a positive manor.

When do people watch the news? When they wake up in the morning. When you wake up and turn on the news what happens? You get blasted by a whole bunch of negative things that happened while you were sleeping. You were sleeping because you were not doing those things. You were doing the right thing preparing for a productive day. So why would you want to wake up to such negativity?

Don’t worry you will be informed. You will know what is going on. You won’t miss anything important. Tim Ferris has a great experiment in his book (The 4-Hour Work Week). He says don’t watch any news or read any newspapers for a few days. It is really hard to do but you have to have some self discipline to do so. Then go out to eat at a nice restaurant. When the server comes to your table tell them that you just got back from a trip and you had not seen a newspaper. Ask them if anything important has happened in the news. You will be surprised to find out that you have not missed anything.

When else do people watch the news? Right before bed. So you wake up to negative news, and now you are about to end your day with negative news. Do you really want to have the last thing you think about negative?

Why did we say prayers just before bed when we were young? To give thanks? To get closer to god?

If those were your answers don’t think that you are wrong. I think that what prayers were meant to be is to give thanks, and be greatfull for a good day. They were meant to be positive. They were meant to be pleasant.

If you want to feel better about yourself, if you want to be more positive, don’t watch the news. You wont miss as much as you think you will, and you will feel better.

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