Bouncing Back 2017 in Crisis!
How to Prepare For and Recover From Life’s Greatest Threats
How to Prepare For and Recover From Life’s Greatest Threats
Life is like a bouncing ball – there are ups and there are downs!
Give the gift of truth, inner knowledge and wisdom to someone special in your life – sports enthusiasts, husbands, fathers, brothers, lovers, boyfriends! And don’t forget the women in your life too! A necessary, enlightening and practical book for all!
The stories and interviews of famous athletes cover the pages of this publication with intimate conversations about their own lives’! You will hear from such greats as Jim Brown, Doug DeCinces, Lee Brandon, Dick Fosbury, Buck Rodgers, Diego Corrales, José Torres and Trey Waltke! Not to mention the author’s own story, Dr. Mann delivers his personal narrative of hardships and grand slams!
This book is an excellent choice for Birthdays, Graduations, Anniversaries, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day or a “Just because I love you” book.
Bouncing Back 2017 In Crisis takes you on a real journey into the lives’ of top sports figures – past and present as they openly share their stories as they embarked upon their own chosen paths. Inspirational and very moving, we are invited to look into their souls and feel their passion for what they truly love. This book is about Life and Change, Challenge and Triumph, Decisions and Courage and NOW, this moment in time with all of the world-wide tumult humanity is experiencing.
Sports and Spirituality all wrapped up and bound together – Bouncing Back 2017 in Crisis is for all people and all seasons. This is not a book about sports – this is a book about life! Surviving in a world of chaos and confusion, fear and doubt, we all must find a way of maintaining our sanity and peace of mind. The vibrant and touching stories that fill the pages of this book reinforce hope, faith and trust for the many small and major life challenges we all face from time to time. From their inner journeys to the outer manifestation of that inner work, we see how they became stronger, more compassionate and understanding and literally reinvent themselves when necessary. Bravery, honesty with oneself, open to transformation, learning the lessons – the men and women in this book can be our teachers. Their tenacity, determination, gutsiness and flexibility are their footprints in the sand. Take a walk in their shoes! Let’s play ball!
Bouncing Back 2017 in Crisis provides Eight Principles that anyone can follow – guidelines to aid us along our own paths of inner searching and growing. Developing our own spiritual journey, which is very personal to each of us, does not mean being a member of any religion or no religion. It is our unique path, our learning the lessons that come into our own lives’, gaining wisdom and clarity. Anyone who reads this book will come away with a much better and clearer vision and understanding of what is needed, necessary for all of humankind. Will we have every answer? Life is a continuous mystery. Questions will always arise. Keeping this book close at hand will remind us when we forget! Touchdown!
I treasure Ron Mann’s books, and now with Bouncing Back 2017 in Crisis! I have something I’m delighted to share with my husband. Dr. Mann has a winning strategy to help the men in our lives deal more effectively with the stress and strains of these difficult political and economic times. Bouncing Back 2017 in Crisis! conveys important concepts and solutions through the experiences of well-known professional sports figures. Their stories are interwoven throughout the book and delivered with key concepts and advise from the perspective of a life of deep reflection and healing.
Bouncing Back 2017 in Crisis! is a lovely journey of blending contemporary methods of mind focus with positive psychology, and the Eastern wisdom traditions. Dr. Mann takes the reader on an exciting and inquisitive read blending stories of famous athletes who persevered through crisis, challenge, and having to overcome loss especially after gain. This book will sharpen your mind and teach methods to train your mind to focus and become clear, as well as enlighten and nourish your spirit and soul, to overcome adversity, crisis and loss, to transform pain towards gain and the big win. A must read.
Listen to Dr. Mann read the introduction and part of the Contributors chapter.
Introduction
Coach Joseph D. Taylor
A few years ago I had the privilege of reading a book written by Ronald L. Mann, PhD. Dr. Mann is a Los Angeles Times best-selling author. The first book of “Bouncing Back” was a very inspirational book and I enjoyed the many stories of the athletes and how they managed the highlights and the lowlights of their careers. I was nearing the end of my 40 years as a collegiate football coach, 30 as a head coach, and wanted to write a “giving back” career book. I reached out to Ron and he accepted my request to become my ghost writer. He flew down to Tallahassee and we spent many days and nights together and wrote the book “The Making of A Champion: Success is an Inconvenience.” Ron is one of those treasures that God puts in your life that comes along at the right time.
Speaking of the right time, “Bouncing Back: 2017 in Crisis!” is a must-read book. We are living in difficult times and maintaining our core values and a loving heart in the midst of chaos, conflict and turmoil is very challenging.
The contents of this book help us to prepare for and recover from life’s greatest threats. Ron does a great job of identifying some of the more dangerous threats and what we need to do to manage and overcome their impact.
The first three are:
1) Our society needs to speak the truth – not “alternative facts.”
2) Our society needs more respect for each other – less emotional reactivity to different points of view.
3) Our society needs to rise above fear and not react with hatred to new and changing circumstances.
When I read Ron’s principle #1, those three or four mentioned threats were immediately addressed.
What is principle #1?
Spiritual realization can awaken within you a depth of wisdom, faith, and access to unseen forces that will support, guide and empower you in your most difficult times. (Find a man’s spirit, also there you will find him).
The Lord blessed me with a very successful coaching career and the fundamental basis for that success came as a result of what Ron refers to as “principle #7.”
What is principle #7?
Emotional Intelligence will determine how effectively you can react and respond in highly stressful circumstances.
1. The importance of being able to accurately perceive the facts (reality) and respond to them.
2. The importance of our ability to manage our emotional life and make good decisions (decisions are like elevators – they either take you up or they take you down).
3. The importance of being able to manage strong emotion and not become impulsive (like “tweeting” at 3 a.m.)
This is a self-help book of guidelines for relevant coping and finding your way in these difficult times.
Thank you, Ron, for writing this book. Our society will change for the better because of your spirituality and emotional intelligence. Please know how honored I am to call you friend and write this foreword.
Sincerely,
Joseph D. Taylor
Athletic Director
Virginia Union University
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Hall of Fame
Taken from the Introduction
The ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times,” continues to be upon us. When I published the first book in 2010, the country was in shock. The stock market had hit a low 6,443.27 on March 6, 2009 and swings of 500 points a day were common, home values had declined 10-40 percent across the nation, foreclosures were rolling across the country, job security had evaporated, 401(k) holdings were losing tremendous value, food prices were rising, health care costs continued to rise beyond reason, and international terrorism continuing to threaten the security of all nations. Millions of Americans were worried, confused, lost, and anxious about their physical and economic security?
History is a good teacher and we have always recovered. However, once again we are faced with massive change. We can keep our sanity and peace of mind if we remain hopeful and use the principles presented in this book. The American people were rightfully upset at the government for its dysfunction and gridlock. So they choose an outsider who painted a very dark and gloomy image of America in spite of many positive facts. But, who cares about facts anymore! We are off to a roller coaster start. Russia hacked us and may have affected the election, we really don’t know about the real impact. We are not doing well with Mexico, travel from seven Middle Eastern countries is banned, our universities and corporations are issuing travel bans, people are on the streets in great numbers protesting, Russia and President Putin are being courted as an ally, and Steve Bannon, a man with White Supremacists inclinations, is a close adviser to our president. This is just after one week. Hopefully things will settle down, but the President’s style does not suggest that.
The world has changed over the last eight years, yet the need for personal strength and inner clarity remains the same –– perhaps it is needed even more in today’s violent world. This new book provides the same wisdom, but in a new voice that is more relevant to our current challenges. Given our current life conditions there appears to be a great need to update the old Bouncing Back and relate it to our current time, 2017 in Crisis! I know you will find this information enlightening and helpful.
Taken from Chapter 7
One can actually be mentally gifted but have such a low emotional intelligence that they do some pretty stupid things. Emotional intelligence is about being smart in how you manage your emotions. Some people think that in business you should not have any emotions. As long as you are breathing, that is probably not possible, unless you are Mr. Spock. We all have emotional reactions to various situations. It is what you do with them that makes the difference. Emotional intelligence is the result of several factors: the awareness of your feelings, the ability to express your feelings, the ability to contain your feelings, the ability to organize your feelings, and the ability to resolve your feelings. It is possible to be intellectually intelligent but not have an equal and corresponding emotional intelligence. Just because you have a good mind does not mean you have done any work on your emotional self. Emotional intelligence is something that can be developed and learned. If we left children alone and did not socialize them, we would have a bunch of wild kids running around without inner controls. If you do the work, you can be emotionally smart as well.
We now live in a time with emotions running high, people getting hurt, and respect for others at a low point. I have done a lot of coaching with competitive athletes and published a fantastic book on developing mental strength, Learning to Win. The issue of “Emotional Control” directly relates to Emotional Intelligence, one of the Eight Principles. This video is part of my online “Coaches Certification Program For the Mental Game, which can be found at ronmanngolf.com.
Although this training video talks about working with junior golfers, the information is relevant for those of all ages. Let’s face it, too many people are acting like children right now. I know you will like this.
We begin with a discussion on spirituality because I believe it may be the most important. We need a strong foundation and inner strength to withstand life’s challenges. Without a strong inner core, we hesitate and falter in the face of adversity. Just like an athlete needs a strong inner physical core to avoid injury, we need a strong inner spiritual core self that is authentic and inspired by something greater than our ego.
Chapter 1
When a crisis hits, it is not the best time to begin learning good coping skills.
Chapter 3
If you become emotionally invested in what others think about you, embrace those ideas, and then create some idea about how you are supposed to perform, you are in trouble!
Chapter 3
You cannot excel if you do not honor and respect who you are!
Chapter 5
Those are the things that you got to watch out for—people in high places without common sense, or sense at all. Those are the dangerous people in our society.”
Buck Rodgers, Chapter 8
The bottom line is that if you really want to be able to perform at your best, you have to prepare for it.
Chapter 6
Dr. Ronald L. Mann has interviewed world-class athletes who have faced overwhelming and life-threatening circumstances and have emerged whole, intact, and victorious. Their inspirational stories provide the insight and direction for overcoming personal disasters and achieving great success in all aspects of life, both on and off the field. These great athletes such as football legend Jim Brown, boxing champions Jose Torres and Diego “Chico” Corrales, Olympic Gold Medalist and creator of the Fosbury flop in high jump Dick Fosbury, Baseball greats Doug DeCinces and Buck Rogers, and Women’s World Long Drive Campion Lee Brandon reveal personal insights and key principles that kept them engaged and preserving during their most difficult life tests. Doug Decinces replaced third base legend Brooks Robinson. Doug was twenty-four years old and had thirty thousand people booing him because he was not Brooks Robinson. His story is chilling and riveting.
Lee Brandon, the RE/MAX Women’s World Long Drive Champion, and had her arm surgically replaced after it was amputated in an accident when she was a teenager. She died on the operating table and had a profound death experience that brought her back to life and set her on a course of recovery, service and success. It took her seven years to rehab her arm and regain function. Her story provides both the psychological guidance and spiritual inspiration to find meaning, hope, purpose and direction when life gets really tough. She shares her amazing story regarding how she recovered and those who were most helpful in that process.
The great athletes like Doug DeCinces and Buck Rogers teach us: “The wisest and most adaptive individuals have the inner strength and mental clarity to perceive what is right for them in that moment. They are not merely following old conditioning and blending in with convention.” Bouncing Back will give you the insight and technology to transform your life. This information is designed to provide a foundation for young people as well as adults of all ages to help them throughout life. These athletes were able to succeed and overcome adversity, and so can you. They explain the importance of coaching and openness to change.
Dr. Mann and these great athletes demonstrate that, “If you can hold a positive mental state that affirms, ‘God will provide,’ you can be supported through the trials and tribulations of physical, psychological, and economic crises.” Bouncing Back provides the inspirational stories regarding this truth and shows you how to accomplish it.
Dr. Mann brings a life long understanding of psychology, spiritual development and peak performance coaching to this book. He is a best selling author of Sacred Healing: Integrating Spirituality with Psychotherapy and adds a depth of wisdom and insights into the life stories of these great athletes.
First Principle
Spiritual Realization Can Awaken Within You a Depth of Wisdom, Faith, and Access to Unseen Forces that Will Support, Guide, and Empower You in Your Most Difficult Times.
Second Principle
Believe in Yourself and Open Doors to Great Possibilities.
Third Principle
Develop A Positive State of Mind to Exponentially Increase the Probability of Achieving Your Goals.
Fourth Principle
Your Ability to Adjust Allows You to Adapt to New and Changing Realities.
Fifth Principle
Rise Above Your Conditioning and Societal Pressures To Unleash Your Personal Power.
Sixth Principle
A Depth of Heart Will Give You the Drive, Determination, and Inspiration to Persevere.
Seventh Principle
Emotional Intelligence Will Determine How Effectively You Can React and Respond in Highly Stressful Circumstances.
Eighth Principle
Personal Coaching Will Allow You to Rapidly Learn, Adapt, and Change.
Answer the following questions: True or False
Self-Analysis—Emotional Intelligence
Answer the following questions: True or False
1. I realize what I am feeling in specific situations.
2. When I become upset, I know why I am reacting.
3. I introspect daily to deepen my self-awareness.
4. If I have interpersonal conflicts, I am able to distinguish between my feelings and the feelings of others.
5. I am not quick to anger.
6. I am able to articulate my feelings to others.
7. I can describe my emotions with clarity.
8. In highly charged, complex situations, I am able to discern the various feelings and issues involved and take appropriate action.
9. I speak up when necessary.
10. I have clear and well-established values that guide my life.
11. I am able to define clear goals that guide my actions.
12. I am able to set priorities and adhere to them.
13. I am able to forgive others.
14. I am able to resolve old hurts.
15. I am able to let go of anger.
If you answered “false” to one or more of the above items, you may need to do some personal work in the area of emotional maturity.
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Read by author Dr. Ronald L Mann