Raise Your Game: High-Performance Secrets from the Best of the Best

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Alan Stein has put together a very enjoyable read and anyone who finishes this book will come away with a number of timeless principles on how to become a better person, co-worker or teammate. Admittedly, Alan does tend to over quote others to bring his points home and some will feel this book is only a re-hash of other authors and their views. That said, the author does a great job of incorporating his own stories and bringing in tangible antidotes from his experience working with basketball’s elite (Durant, Kobe, Kerr, Duncan and Coach K amongst many others). I would steer any basketball fan to this book (Alan’s circle of competence) and any novice reader to self improvement books as he covers a lot of ground and topics in this arena. As someone who's read a lot of these productivity texts, everything from Napoleon Hill to Tony Robbins, I didn't catch much here that's not been said (if anything). Even the Kevin Durant "servant leader" story is basically just the same-old "servant leader" spiel you get from every other leadership/productivity book (because KD got it from those books himself!), so we've come full-circle at peak productivity-hype point.

Who doesn't want to be a better person? Okay... I know so many books are available in the market regarding this very question but guys keep reading as I assure you this is a masterpiece of all. Whosoever completes this book will leave away with various ageless standards on the best way to improve personally, colleague, or partner. Teammate Audit / Unselfishness: Fifteen index cards...Write the name of a colleague on each card. • Every workday, send one of them one of three things: Someone you know who may benefit them (and ask if they’d like an introduction) Something you know that may add value to them (a book recommendation, an article, or a video) An inquiry to see how they are doing and what you can help with (“How are things in your world?”) I’ve pasted below my favorite sections from the book and I appreciated the self-tests throughout and the summaries at the end of each chapter. All in all, a good read for those looking to raise their game with some good stories to remember as examples. Here are my five favorite parts and one of my favorite quotes:

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As hard to believe as it is, there are many aspects of my life I could probably improve upon. I don’t eat enough apples, I brag about my running and the races I will be competing in this weekend, instead of heading home after work I often go out drinking with my subterranean sewer friends, I will wear vertical stripes and horizontal stripes in the same outfit, and many more. Like most people I see the New Year as a chance to start over and correct some of these deficiencies. So I have been reading a bunch of improvement books. Raise Your Game: High-Performance Secrets from the Best of the Best by Alan Stein Jr. uses coaching, sports experiences, and the successes of NBA players to show what I need to do to improve my life. Unseen Hours: My good friend and colleague Drew Hanlen is an internationally renowned NBA strategic skills coach. He has coined a phrase that I absolutely love: unseen hours. It refers to all the time and effort the public doesn’t see that lays the foundation to the success they do see. It’s the work they put in when there are no TV cameras, no fans, and no cheerleaders. It’s the baskets they make that don’t count, the passes that don’t show up on instant replay, the hustling that never gets them any shout-outs. It’s what happens when the gym is empty and the hour is insanely early or insanely late. Those are the unseen hours. That’s where the heavy lifting happens, and the average spectator doesn’t even think about it. Teammate Audit / Unselfishness: Fifteen index cards...Write the name of a colleague on each card. • Every workday, send one of them one of three things. Thoughts on Vision: Vision is about carrying both the big and the small, the now and the later, the intangible concept and the tangible steps. “The most productive people push themselves to come up with big goals,” wrote Charles Duhigg in Smarter Faster Better, “and then have a system for breaking them into manageable parts.” Draw a connection between what you ultimately want to accomplish, along with what you want your organization to be, and then break it all down into the manageable steps it will take to get there.

Wow! Such a powerful book. I have followed Alan Stein for many years to learn ways to help my players and students improve not only in basketball, but also life.Thoughts on Vision: Vision is about carrying both the big and the small, the now and the later, the intangible concept and the tangible steps. Control the Controllable: There are only two things in this world that we have 100 percent control over, 100 percent of the time. That is our effort and our attitude. At first, I was skeptical because there are so many books that cover these topics, but I was blown away by this book. This book challenged my thinking, had me discussing topics with my family, and has provided me key teaching points to my youth teams. The author works superbly by joining his own accounts and bringing immaterial counteractants from his experience working with basketball's tip top (Durant, Kobe, Kerr, Duncan, and Coach K among numerous others). I would guide any basketball fan to this book and any fledgling pursuer to personal growth books as he makes a great deal of progress and subjects in this field. Although there are many productivity/performance books targeted at life/work improvement that draw lessons from sports, this is the first one I've read that drew from it so heavily from a single sport, Basketball to provide the life lessons (though by no means do I think this is first book of this type/structure).