Uncommon by Tony Dungy

Author:Tony Dungy [Dungy, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Life / Men, SPORTS & RECREATION / Football, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Sports
ISBN: 9781414363950
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Published: 2011-02-21T05:00:00+00:00

Toughness

I was recently talking about hardships with James Brown, the studio host of The NFL on CBS. He said that he has been called an “overnight success,” and then he shook his head and laughed. “Yeah. After the first twenty years of toiling, sure . . . then it was overnight.”

To me, this shows toughness. Our players so often talk about being “tough,” but I’m not sure they grasp what that truly means. Toughness is shown in how you respond to adversity. Can you respond without losing your footing and your direction? If so, that shows me that you’re tough. Life is messy. We don’t always get a happy ending, and sometimes the middle isn’t so happy either. You never really know how tough people are until they encounter the rough spots. We’re all tough when things are going our way. We’re all tough when we’re getting the breaks. That’s easy.

But the truly tough man is the one who stays grounded in his values and focused on his goals when things are challenging. When things in life don’t go according to plan, the tough man will exhibit a determination to reach his goal no matter the obstacles.

I try to give our players some latitude and allow them to fail so they can learn to respond to problems and then grow. Toughness, even on the football field, is more appropriately thought of as mental, not physical, endurance.

People often ask the question, “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” Obviously, there are no easy answers to that question. But I do know this: God is constantly working in us through it all, molding and shaping us into what He created us to be, and it’s in the valleys of our failures where He is working the hardest, making us into something uncommon.

* * *

Keys for Your Full Potential

1. Be positive. Your mind is more powerful than you think.

2. Build high expectations into others.

3. What is down in the well comes up in the bucket. Fill yourself with positive things.

4. Your education matters. Don’t cut corners—you’ll only cheat yourself if you don’t learn the material.

5. Sports are great . . . as a complement to academics.

6. Find employment that excites you for reasons beyond the salary.

7. Make conservative decisions with debt.

8. Don’t take hassles from work home with you.

9. Goals are important, but make sure they are worthy goals—you just might reach them!

10. Don’t fear risk—life is an adventure, not a dress rehearsal.

11. Make the best decisions you can after deliberation and prayer, but don’t second-guess yourself. You did the best you could.

12. Be careful with mind-altering substances, even legal ones. Addiction can sneak up and destroy your life.

13. Don’t be afraid to be different.

14. You will fail. Remember that, but don’t fear it.

15. True toughness is how you respond to adversity.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.