TUNNEY-SIDE-OF-THE-STREET

#92 October 2 2006
Welcome to this week's message from the Tunney-Side-Of-The-Street. You are encouraged to share this with fellow workers, family and friends.

After further review -

USA TODAY, in conjunction with the CABLE NETWORK VERSUS, (formerly OLN) recently interviewed ten well-known sports champions who described their thoughts and feelings that put them in a category called, "Soul of a Champion". Although, they are well-known sport personalities, these individuals are not the focus of this writing; the message is not the messenger. The essence of these interviews is the beliefs these champions had in the traits they say propelled them to the championship level.

As I thought about the philosophy of achievement, the words of my mentor, the late Bill Gove, came to mind. Bill said, "Some things are easy to learn and easy to do, cry - easy to learn and easy to do; some things are easy to learn and hard to do - speak, easy to learn it, hard to do it well; some things are hard to learn and hard to do - golf; and finally, when something is easy to learn but you can't remember where or when you learned it, that's called - talent"!

All of the champions interviewed by USA TODAY have talent. Yet, in describing their success, they use words like: confidence, competitiveness, focus, courage, poise and that catch all phrase to the question, what makes a champion? - "I don't know".

In my book, It's the Will, Not the Skill the late legendary Coach Vince Lombardi is quoted in the foreword, "The will to excel and the will to win, they endure". Certainly the word endure is a characteristic that runs deep in everyone of these champions.

The quality of one's will, first and foremost, embodies determination, never giving up, commitment, and extra effort, as well as those characteristics mentioned above. The tragedy is watching talented people - not just athletic talent but all forms - fade, diminish or vanish because of the lack of their will power. Indeed, there is power in the will.

I love Woody Allen's line saying that he cheated in school on his metaphysical exam when he "looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me". My belief is that each one of us has the soul of a champion and can (read: has the ability) activate it when we engage our will.

Will you use your will to activate those championship traits within you?

Look for my book
It's the Will, Not the Skill
Principles and philosophies of success
For more information about Jim Tunney, go to www.jimtunney.com
Visit my blog for the entire collection of my Tunney Sides:
http://tunney-side-of-the-street.blogspot.com

ARTICLE TAGLINE FOR JIM TUNNEY, Ed.D., CSP, CPAE

Copyright © 2003 Jim Tunney. All rights reserved.
You can visit Jim's website at http://www.jimtunney.com

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