| Title | : | Relentless Optimism: How a Commitment to Positive Thinking Changes Everything (Sports for the Soul Book 3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 252 |
| Publication | : | Published July 25, 2017 |
Studies prove that positive thinkers are happier, healthier, and more successful than everyone else. Discover the simple, proven techniques for becoming a more positive person...
Positive thinking leads to positive outcomes. Study after study proves this. Researchers have found that optimistic people live longer, live healthier, have more energy, have more successful careers, make better decisions, are more productive, are less stressed, have healthier relationships, and (not surprisingly) are much happier than pessimists.
However, a lot has been misunderstood about what it means to be a positive thinker and what it takes to maintain an optimistic mindset. It takes a lot more than repeating feel-good platitudes to make positive thinking work in your life. It takes discipline, commitment, and a proper understanding of what optimism really means in a world that is constantly throwing new challenges at us.
This is a book for anyone who has ever questioned whether positive thinking really “works.”
It’s also a book for those who have tried to develop a more positive attitude, but have found it difficult to eliminate the voices of fear, doubt, and cynicism.
This is a book for anyone who wants to put optimism to work in their life with practical, proven techniques.
In this inspirational fable, you’ll meet Bobby Kane, a 31-year-old minor league baseball player who realizes his dream of making it to the majors is finally coming to a disappointing end. His dream, he believes, was not meant to be.
That is, until Bobby meets an unconventional manager named Wally Hogan. More mental coach than baseball manager, Wally teaches Bobby that if you want to change your life, you have to first change your thinking.
As you’ll see in this book, developing a positive mindset gives Bobby a renewed chance to make his dreams come true—not just in baseball, but in all areas of his life.
Wally teaches Bobby what it means to be an optimist and what it takes to maintain a positive attitude through the ups and downs of life. He teaches him proven, real-world techniques for building and sustaining optimism. These methods have an immediate impact on Bobby’s life and they will have an immediate impact on yours as well.
This book will show you just how powerful a positive attitude can be and it will teach you how to use positive thinking to make your biggest dreams come true.
Relentless Optimism: How a Commitment to Positive Thinking Changes Everything (Sports for the Soul Book 3) Reviews
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Very engaging, easy read that gave me the reminder that I needed right now.
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There are no words other than WOW!! Great book. Great lesson inside. Just the reminder I needed.
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Donnelly's portrayal of a massive comeback of Bobby Kane moved me emotionally and changed my mental perspectives on all aspects of my life. This book makes for a perfect reread, and I plan on rereading it multiple times to remind myself of the book's plentiful life lessons. Some of my favorite quotes from the book are:
"Optimists remind themselves that every negative event is a lie. That's capital L-I-E.
The L stands for Limited. Optimists see the negative event as temporary and limited to a single moment...
The I is for Isolated. Optimists see the negative event as specific to that one particular area...
The E is for External. Optimists remind themselves that people and things outside of their control contributed to the negative event." (95)
"First, you have to eliminate all the negativity you can from your personal environment. This means recognizing the people and things that feed you negativity and getting rid of them.
Secondly, you have to properly manage the negative things in your environment that you can't get rid of - things like negative people you're stuck working with." (144)
"'Should you care what these types of people think of you?' Wally asked. 'Should you care what people like that think will happen to you, your team, or your company? Should you care what those people think you should do with your life?'" (154)
"The only people you should listen to when it comes to opinions and advice are people who you admire." (155)
"You have to immediately ask yourself, 'Do I admire this person?' If the answer is no, then you mentally block their negativity out." (157)
"'Never let the odds keep you from pursuing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.'" -Satchel Paige (181)
"'You have to experience it in your mind before you can expect to experience it in reality'" - visualization technique (194)
"Gratitude is the optimist's greatest weapon. When you're grateful for who you are, where you are, and the very moment you're experiencing, you're able to let go and just be. It doesn't matter what else is going on. You're able to fully experience the greatest moment. " (214) -
Funny story how I received this book-I saw a speaker with some co-workers and one co-worker answered a question and was given a book by the motivational speaker. I asked him if I could read it and I came in the next day to this book on my desk. Interesting – why would the speaker give out copies of someone else’s book? Turns out he mixed it up with one his boss loaned to him. It looked good so I said hey-I’ll take this one, too!
I come from a family of optimists and had a boss in my 20’s who further formed my way of thinking to focus on the positive as well. Without a doubt, positivity makes all of the difference in how happy you are!
As like many business books, the teaching is told through a story. Bobby Kane is a baseball player from Boston who was a rising star. After an injury, his attitude plummeted as did his career. He gets sent down another level to play for coach Wally Hogan, who is something special. While on the road, he has players drive with him in his RV while he coaches them on so much more than how to play ball. He teaches the head game. If you like baseball, you will enjoy this story.
What made it nice is if a part got a little uninteresting (like the play by play of a game – I like baseball but get to the bottom line) you could skip ahead and not miss the “lessons” because they were all in bold. Below is a taste of some of the quotes.
Nothing is more important than what you feed your mind. And the best way to feed your mind is with the books you read.
“Success begins in your mind, but failure does, too. Optimism is self-fulfilling, but pessimism is too. You have to decide how you’re going to think. The choice is yours and you have to own the outcome.
Optimism won’t prevent negative events from happening; optimism will ensure that you respond to those negative events in the most beneficial way possible – a way that leads to positive outcomes. The people who succeed aren’t the ones who avoid failure; they’re the ones who learn how to respond to failure with optimism.
Optimists remind themselves that every negative event is a lie. That’s LIE:
L stands for Limited. Optimists see the negative event as temporary and limited to a single moment.
I stands for Isolated. Optimists see the negative event to one specific area and not all areas of their life.
E stands for External. Optimists remind themselves that people and things outside of their control contributed to the negative event (it’s not personal)
Anyone can be an optimist for a day, a week, maybe a few months when things are going well. It’s a commitment to long-term positive thinking that separates the big achievers from everyone else.
To get out of the habit, the book talked about how negative thoughts creep in you have to Recognize. Argue. Replace. I was taught the phrase Stop. Challenge. Choose. Either way it is the same concept – catch yourself, challenge the thought and then choose to replace it with new thinking. The more you practice, the easier it becomes.
The book talked about avoiding negative people. How can we do that in certain situations where we don’t have a choice? Here is where he talked about creating a mind moat which is a mental barrier that protects your positive mindset from outside forces. I call that my shield. When I feel negativity or strong emotions coming my way I must mentally put up the shield or it will affect me. I will either start having negative thoughts (because negative thoughts are contagious) or I start to over-empathize.
The rest of the book had other lessons similar to those I have heard before such as you become what you think about, the importance of gratitude, believe it to achieve it, do your best and do not get attached to the outcome, and so on. The words might be different but the lessons are the same.
As the book says, you need to feed your brain with good books and even if there was not a lot that was NEW, it is always good to continue to have repetition in the messages because it supports life long learning. And it was a sweet little story, too. -
The story Relentless Optimism is about a minor league ballplayer named Bobby Kane. He is trying to make his way into the major leagues, but his mindset is holding him back from being the great player that he knows he is. When he gets sent down to Double-A, he meets his new manager named Wally who drastically helps him with his mindset and how he responds to bad performances. After a long time in Double-A and many promises made, Bobby is in the final stretch to being called up. He has been on a hot streak and just as expected, The Kansas City Royals call him up in efforts to make the playoffs. In his first game, he comes up in a pinch-hit situation and sends one over the wall for a home run, and in his second game, hits a walk-off 3-run home run for the cycle, and thinks about how much he is thankful for Wally, and that when you commit to positive thinking, things will go your way.
My favorite character has to be the main character, Bobby. What makes me like him so much is because he can be the most confident person ever when he is thinking well. I also like his journey and those hardships that he went through, especially when he had to fight off an enraged teammate that was talking bad about Wally. His teammate begins to “[launch] his half-full mug of beer at [Bobby’s] face” (Donnelly 135). I also like Bobby because he gives tips for the reader to become better optimists. One of those is when Bobby says that when “you aim high, stay positive, enjoy the moment, let go of results, and trust yourself; the outcome will end up better than you ever expected”(Donnelly 241). Overall, Bobby is just a great character that many people (including myself) can relate to. He is a great example of someone who knows their weaknesses and makes an effort to overcome them, which is the person that most people aspire to be. That is why I like Bobby’s personality and aspire to be someone who can do the same things that he is able to do.
Overall, I think that this is one of the greatest books that I have read, which also happens to give me ideas about how I can be a better person. I would absolutely recommend this book to others. I would show it to the people who have a hard time being optimistic and looking at things the good way. There are some very valuable things that they can take from this book. I would also recommend this to people who just want a good read. There are many other things than just optimism. There are things such as conflict and overcoming challenges. Overall, this is a great book and I would highly recommend it to someone who wants a good read with good lessons. -
My daughter is into positive thinking and she gave me three or four books on the subject. "Relentless Optimism" by Darrin Donnelly was one of them. The book surprised me. It was so interesting that I couldn't put it down. It reads like a novel. There is a story that teaches how a commitment to changing your attitude can affect your life, everything in your life.
There are two major characters, Bobby Kane and Wally Hogan. Bobby is 31 and reduced to playing in the minor leagues. It looks like his career is over. Wally was a successful big leaguer turned minor league manager. Wally made his money and could afford to do what he loved. W ally was more than a baseball manager, he was a mental coach for positive thinking.
Step by step, Wally turns Bobby's life around. Not only is Bobby surprised, but so is the reader. I've lived a long life, so to speak. My philosophy has always been, "Always expect the worse. Most of the time it doesn't happen. So you're happy. But if the worse happens, you can deal with it better than anybody because you knew it would happen." This book changed my mind. My philosophy is no way to go through life. It is not something I want to hand down to my grandchildren. Wally's way gives you a happy life. My way was too cautious to allow me to enjoy the moment. I missed a lot of beauty and appreciation.
It's never too late. Bobby was 31 when he turned around. If I'm turning around then so can anyone. -
This book is amazing. Another book I couldn’t put down. Darrin Donnelly is an exceptional writer. He definitely makes you feel everything and pulls you into the moments. I want to get this book for so many people. I think this book would be great for a lot of people who are hard headed about the law of attraction and optimistic thinking. The breakdown in this book uses real life emotions and questions and guides you step by step by telling you the story. And you’re sitting there like I can do this too. Also you’re cheering him on the whole way to get through his blocks. It’s a beautiful story. And I think anyone would love this book but it’s definitely aimed toward baseball lovers, or sports lovers in general. It might be too much for you if you absolutely hate sports. But the message is powerful in life in general.
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Phenomenal
An outstanding book! This is my first by the author and was thoroughly impressed. Darrin Donnelly’s masterful understanding of story combined with his straightforward communication style and essential life principles woven throughout make me desire to have this book (and his others) to be required reading for athletes of all ages from Middle School to College. Gripping story, powerful principles, outstanding message. Highly recommended for anyone of any age, but especially anyone involved with sports at any level. An overall phenomenal read! -
Wisdom worth every penny!
This book imparts useful knowledge in a most entertaining way (especially if you have any interest in baseball at all). You learn from the author how the type of optimism you learn about in this book can improve your life. There are practical insights and techniques you learn that you can put to use right away. Best book I bought from Amazon in a very long time! -
Enjoyed the message of the power of positive thinking in our lives.
I found this book as I was looking for ways to help my son overcome his self doubt. He's a talented ball player who sometimes allows his mind to prevent him from doing his best. This book was an easy read that said just what I needed. -
Amazing book
If you enjoy a story of ups and downs and sound advice in minimizing the downs and maximizing the ups, then you will enjoy this book. But underneath the story is the truth of the story. As someone who’s been through many ups and many more downs, I know that handling it the way the story points is the only way to go. -
Inspirational story
I love Darrin's books!! He does a great job incorporating life lessons into inspiring stories. This particular book caused me to take a serious look at myself to determine if I truly have been giving my best effort. -
Great!
A tear jerker and a life changer! When I read this, Bible verses kept popping into my head. The only thing I would change is where our source of trust comes from. This book teaches you to trust yourself but trusting your maker is far more effective with these principles. -
Highly Recommend!
Well written and approached from a clear, informative, while still easy to digest, angle. Would highly recommend Darrin's books and have recommended them to a number of my coaching clients. -
You can
There is a seemingly silly phrase in the Adam Sandler movie, “Water boy” where the goofy character yells, “you can do it...” Thinking you can or thinking you can’t plays a key roll in all our lives and this story provides depth to that understanding.
