“People often ask me about the behind-the-scenes mechanics of my work with elite athletes. They want to know the mysterious process that motivates the extraordinary among us. How do they reach such high levels of performance? And how do they go from a devastating injury to return-to-play? How do they stick it out when they suffer a setback that would put others out of the arena for good? The short version is this: They marshal their inner victorious spirit—a resource that is inside all of us—to push through setbacks and perform at peak levels, physically and mentally. They capitalize on the genetic legacy of survival and perseverance that’s part of our collective history, using their biological drive not just to survive, but to thrive.”
Bert R. Mandelbaum, MD, via The Win Within (Page 1)
Quotes about Athletes
The Win Within: Capturing Your Victorious Spirit [Book]
Book Overview: As an orthopedic surgeon, a finish-line physician, and a USA team doctor at the World Cup and the Olympics, Dr. Bert Mandelbaum has witnessed the trials and triumphs of elite athletes from a vantage point few of us get. And over his twenty-plus years of experience, he’s identified a common character trait that every elite athlete relies upon for success: it’s what he calls the ”victorious spirit.” In The Win Within, Mandelbaum reveals that any of us–no matter our age or physical condition–can capture that same spirit in our own lives. This inner drive to win resides in all of us, he argues, hardwired into our DNA by ancestry dating back millions of years. You’ll learn how to view life the way a top-performing athlete does: relentlessly, tenaciously, positively, and focusing less on the finish line of the marathon and more on the 26.2 miles that precede it. With narrative support ranging from the lessons of our early ancestors to Mandelbaum’s stories of our modern-day gladiators (both household name and lesser known), The Win Within will give you a greater understanding of how and why we’re all hardwired to win–and you’ll come away with no shortage of tactics and motivation to capture your own victorious spirit.
A Motivational Excerpt From Tom Brady’s Hall Of Fame Speech—”You Don’t Have To Be Special…”
Excerpt: Tom Brady—one of football’s all time greatest quarterbacks—delivered some motivational FIRE during his Hall of Fame speech… Read it here…
Read More »A Motivational Excerpt From Tom Brady’s Hall Of Fame Speech—”You Don’t Have To Be Special…”
Adam Sandler’s Speech from Hustle [2022] “Never Back Down”
Excerpt: Adam Sandler’s speech from Hustle [2022] is one of the all-time great motivational speeches played in a sports movie. Read/ watch it here…
Read More »Adam Sandler’s Speech from Hustle [2022] “Never Back Down”
“Sport is where an entire life can be compressed into a few hours, where the emotions of a lifetime can be felt on an acre or two of ground, where a person can suffer and die and rise again on six miles of trails through a New York City park. Sport is a theater where sinner can turn saint and a common man become an uncommon hero, where the past and future can fuse with the present. Sport is singularly able to give us peak experiences where we feel completely one with the world and transcend all conflicts as we finally become our own potential.”
George A. Sheehan, via Sunbeams (Page 52)
Simone Biles Quote on Work Ethic and How Greatness Requires More Of You
“Everything I do is in the gym so I’m always in gym clothes.”
Simone Biles
Beyond the Quote (Day 370)
Gymnasts perform some of the most incredible feats humanly possible. The ability to hold an iron cross; to twist multiple times through the air as they leap from a high bar to a low bar; to flip multiple times on floor routines and to watch them stick insane landings—they truly are some of the most impressive athletes in the world. And you better believe that every flip, twist, and landing is hard earned—never given.
Read More »Simone Biles Quote on Work Ethic and How Greatness Requires More Of You“I built my game to have no holes. It doesn’t matter how well you knew my game. It doesn’t matter if we played against each other for years, or were even teammates for a stretch. None of that helped you guard me. Yes, you might have known I preferred to go one way. That didn’t ultimately matter, because I could just as easily go the other way. Yeah, you might have also thought you knew my cadence and rhythm, except—I didn’t have one. I made a point to adjust the pace of my attack to throw defenders off. In essence, the more you thought you knew about my game, the harder it would actually be to guard me.”
Kobe Bryant, Mamba Mentality (Page 197)
