Brian Johnson reviews Deion Sanders' Elevate and Dominate, a book of 21 practical prompts on winning in sports and life. Sanders, who won championships at Jackson State and was hired to coach Colorado, writes in his high-energy voice. Johnson walks through the reflective questions on purpose and habits, then challenges you to name one thing to start and one thing to stop.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. In our last few plus ones, we spent some time with a fascinating human being, Tim Kennedy. As you may recall, we unpacked some wisdom from his autobiography, starting with the origin story of the title of the book, Scars and Stripes. Then we talked about the keys to making your life better. And then we chatted about the standards Special Forces operators hold themselves to as I challenged you and me to step up our games today. And over the next few plus ones, we're going to talk about another guy I find fascinating. Deion Sanders. If you follow sports, you almost certainly know who Deion Sanders is. If you don't follow sports, Deion Sanders is the only player in sports history to play in a Super bowl and World Series. He's an NFL hall of Famer and a two time super bowl champion. More recently, he's dedicated his life to redefining coaching and leadership as Coach Prime. After leading Jackson State University to two conference championships, he took over the head coaching job at the University of Colorado. I picked up his new book, Elevate and Dominate after two things happened on the same day. First, I was reading Dr. Nate Zinser's great book, the Confident Mind. He profiles Deion Sanders as a micro case study on what confidence looks like. Then Alexandra shared a heroic social post by one of our members. Thanks Lanny, who encouraged me to get Dion's new book. I pay attention to little winks like that, so I immediately got the book. It arrived the next day. I read the first 101 pages that afternoon, finished it during one of Emerson's chess tournaments the next day, wrote the PDF the next morning, and here we are. As per the subtitle, the book features 21 ways to win on and off. The feel? It's awesome. The book is like having a conversation with a wise, playful, super high energy iconoclast. To put it in perspective, the opening words of the book are hey baby, it's Coach Prime. Thanks for picking up my book. Let's cut to the chase. Here's how this is going to go down. I don't want to lecture. Let's have a real conversation. That's so much better. That's so much more intimate. Hey baby, you. You had me on. Hey baby, Coach. Note Deon is also a big fan of the all caps for emphasis. So as you can imagine, we're soul brothers. All caps. Now we'll chat about some of my favorite big ideas in the next several plus ones, including Coach Prime's thoughts on the key to success. And the importance of dreaming big. For today, I want to ask you the same question Coach asks right after his hey baby greeting. Do you feel like the best parts of life are just passing you by? Coach Dion asks Coach prime, are you spending most of your time just worrying? Do you hate going to work every morning? Have you forgotten what it's like to have a true passion for the things you're involved in? Do you still have dreams when your head hits the pillow every night? Are you at peace when you look in the mirror? Do you like what you see? Do you have a plan? And what is it? How do you attack your days? Well, what do you say, hero? Today's +1. However you answered those questions, I've got another couple questions for you. What's one thing you know you could start doing that would help you answer those questions even more positively? And what's one thing you know you could stop doing that would help you answer those questions even more positively? Seriously, what's one thing you can start doing and what's one thing you can stop doing? It's time to elevate and dominate. It's day one. We're all in. Let's go, baby. P.S. john Maxwell, one of the world's most respected leadership thinkers and authors in the world, wrote the foreword to the book celebrating Coach Prime's iconoclastic leadership style. Check out our notes on a few of his great books, including How Successful people think, the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership, the 15 invaluable laws of growth, and leader shift little PPs when I read the subtitle to the book about winning on and off the field, I thought of another recent note, Move by Move, Life Lessons on and off the Chessboard by Maurice Ashley. That great book is by the first African American chess grandmaster. Check it out.
