Introduction: Stillpower: Excellence With Ease in Sports and Life by Garret KramerStillpower: Excellence with Ease in Sports and Life
I get books all the time, and a publicist asked me if I'd like a copy of Stillpower: Excellence with Ease in Sports and Life by Garret Kramer. And if I'd be willing to publish an article of his on my blog. I told her to mail me the book and I'd pass on the article. I've had the book for a while, but when I felt like I needed a breather from the books I have been reading, I grabbed it without knowing what it was about.
It was a pleasure to read Stillpower: Excellence With Ease in Sports and Life by Garret Kramer. My brain felt like it was on vacation and I was open to the author’s message. Although this may sound like a contradiction, the book allowed me to take time to reflect and think and process the information presented. A shift was also taking place in my mindset, and giving me permission to let go of beliefs that no longer served me.
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What is Stillpower: Excellence With Ease in Sports and Life by Garret Kramer About?
According to Garret Kramer, Stillpower is your inner source of excellence.
“It revolves around a deep faith in your inner wisdom and innate resilience; in trusting that all sentiments are temporary since they originate from your own thoughts and moods.”
Individuals perform better and make sounder decisions when they operate from a higher level of consciousness, a higher state of mind. When they think thoughts, good or bad, they shouldn’t place any importance on them because they are only thoughts, and the thoughts will simply vanish away. When prominence is placed on thoughts, people sometimes end up creating these larger than life stories. And we have to make the distinction that our state of mind is the source of our view on the world, on life, and not the effect.
The strangest thing happened while reading Stillpower, it reminded me of Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior by Chögyam Trungpa, which I had read the day before, and also the poem If by Rudyard Kipling. It’s quoted that Einstein said that you cannot solve a problem at the same level it was created and the essence of Stillpower is about that.
Self-responsibility is critical, you cannot blame outside events for the things that happen in your life, and Kramer talks about coaches who try to motivate their players to perform at peak levels, but that is not sustainable if they want a winning team. A better way is for them to empower their players to motivate themselves. When teams lose games, instead of deconstructing the video of the game, they should pay attention to the mindset of the players on the team. And work on elevating the mindset of each of the players on the team.
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In Stillpower, Kramer touches on what it means to operate in the zone. He says the zone is the place where limitations cease to exist. Being in the zone is a selfless experience. He indicates that people succeed and are most productive when they apply free will – self-responsibility – and not strength of will.
When we try to use willpower, there is resistance because we often feel as if we are being forced to do something. When we apply free will, we do something because we want to do it and have a purpose for doing it, and that’s a big difference. And coaches have to understand this, and change the way they relate and interact with the players.
What I liked about the book is that the author used many case studies to demonstrate his point of view. The information is not really new, especially for those who study Eastern philosophy, but the way that Kramer presents the information, makes it easier to digest.
I mentioned previously that reading Stillpower: Excellence With Ease in Sports and Life reminded me of Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior by Chögyam Trungpa They have some information that is similar. But reading Shambhala was no walk in the park, it is a very difficult book to read, and the delivery of the information is much different from Stillpower.
When you read Stillpower, you will learn what true leadership is about. You will become more aware of your mindset. And how having a lower mindset can affect the way you respond to life, and how that can thwart your success. To become more aware, we have to understand the principles behind performance and the relationship between thought and state of mind.
Five Big Ideas from Stillpower: Excellence With Ease in Sports and Life by Garret Kramer
- It is important to monitor thoughts and feelings moment to moment.
- Understand that your life situation has no ability to regulate your life.
- “Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, you’re simply wasting your life.” Jackie Robinson
- Understand that personal freedom and one’s perception of life are 100 percent self-determined.
- Every situation you face in life is an opportunity to react and apply judgment, or look deeper into what is going on.
Final Thoughts: Stillpower: Excellence With Ease in Sports and Life by Garret Kramer
I recommend Stillpower: Excellence with Ease in Sports and Life
by Garret Kramer, which you can read in a few hours. Take the time to process the information and identify ways to make subtle shifts in your mindset. When we apply free will and elevate our mindset, we are being proactive and taking responsibility for ourselves.
First Published March 2013
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