Garret Kramer

Are you looking for true success, but every time you try you end of failing or falling short of your goals? Stillpower, written by author and leadership trainer, Garret Kramer, is a thought-provoking read that will change what you have traditionally thought were the key ingredients to achieving optimal performance and success. Stillpower has a message that shows us what our lives could be if we operated from the quiet and clarity of our inner conscience.

Kramer has offered readers a new perspective for coaches, athletes, or anyone in a place of leadership in Stillpower, which truly transcends the mainstream philosophy utilized by pop psychology and meditational thinkers. His message is simple, yet so effective: Willpower does not create success. Stillpower, the simple and creative inner thoughts, does.

The book describes that inside a person's state of mind lies his or her outlook on life. Stillpower does not have to do with external factors such as fame, winning, losing, money, etc. Instead, it is our thoughts and inner conscious that influence our outcomes. Kramer emphasizes the instinct of the human mind, which knows how to self correct itself to clarity and consciousness. This is something that cannot be forced, which can negatively impact our creativity and performance and violates our free will.

Children are the perfect example of Stillpower – they operate from a place of freedom and passion where they can express themselves fully. With Stillpower, adults can experience this same contentment and operate in a place that is free from the fear of failure. The more we try to control our thoughts and actions the more we can get in our own way. Kramer's advice is to stop trying so hard and allow yourself to enter into what he refers to as the zone.

The zone is not a tangible place, and does not have to do with intellect. It is about what you are doing in the present without over analyzing the situation. Kramer points out that in this process of freedom you don't think, you know. You don't focus. You feel. You don't try too hard. You allow. This he says, removes the external limitations.

Stillpower offers a fresh idea for leaders, coaches, and parents to evaluated their own state of mind. That is to say a more grounded person will be able to be more successful in connecting with their team. Your mood, Kramer says, directly affects your outcome. True leadership encourages people and allows motivation to be born out of them individually, which then positively affects the entire team.

In an age where perfection and drive seem to be the prevailing thought of our society, Stillpower offers us a new alternative where we can return to uninhibited thinking, which provides a freedom and passion for what we chose to do in the first place. This allows us to take the limitations off of ourselves and to stop forcing our will on others. When we do this, we can experience new levels of achievement.

Reading Stillpower will encourage you to return to creativity and self expression, which is lacking in today's competitive environment. This is a must read book for any coach, athlete, leader or parent who would like to learn how to be more successful without striving and help others do the same.… (plus d'informations)

I started reading this book at the recommendation of a trust friend and fellow volleyball coach. The topic of conversation was: what are you doing to help your player play better, player more relaxed and getting the most of their abilities. While I have never been very focused on trying to get at the ever elusive state of mind called "The Zone". I thought I understood the concept, even though I didn't know how to go about achieving the zone at the drop of a hat. I watch Bird, Magic, Jordan, Brees, etc. operate at a level much more elevated than what I could achieve and did wonder how.

This particular book is the first common sense approach to "The Zone". And it starts off rather pessimistically. The author actually discourages you to think in those terms. He tries to convince you that there is no such thing as "The Zone', there is just a point in time in your athletic performance that comes naturally, through the sheer act of playing. This is not what most coaches and players looking for, they want the panacea, the edge, the recipe. For this reason, I am afraid Garrett Kramer will be an abysmal failure as a self help guru. What he proposes is not mystical enough, not how-to enough, and most importantly, way too counter-intuitive. But I do believe he is right.

Far be it for me to talk about what he said, I think he does a much better job of describing than I ever could, and he isn't really eloquent about it, but he makes a very good case and the book does one thing, it allowed me to look beyond my own limited visions and allowed me to think is a meta level about athletic performance and the mind games we all play with out brains.

This book is not for everyone, if you have very tightly help opinions about what constitute performance and paths towards exceptional performance, then reading this book will be a waste of time. BUT, if you are comfortable enough with your world view, and if you have a wide enough mind to embrace some pretty counter-intuitive views on who we are and what constitutes the most advantageous mindset for athletic performance, then I think you can get something out of the book.

I am personally struggling with how to go about training athletes' bodies while also using Stillpower the training their minds, the two paths seem to be going is diametrically opposing directions.… (plus d'informations)

Sigmund Freud revealed that a high percentage of human action is motivated by a person’s subconscious. The pagan and Jewish philosophers Aristotle and Maimonides stressed that people should develop habits of behavior according to the golden mean, the middle between the extremes of avoidance and excess, so that when a situation arises they will react unconsciously in a proper manner according to their habits. The writer Ayn Rand advised other writers not to struggle over their manuscripts but to let their subconscious write for them. Without mentioning these or similar sources Garret Kramer applies this idea to sports: do not struggle to perform well; relax, and insights will flow from the player’s subconscious. This solution, he writes, is simple and understandable.

Kramer doesn’t address how to develop skills initially, but how to use them in a successful and enjoyable manner once the skills are achieved. He does so with many examples, quotes, and true stories of success on virtually every page. Kramer writes that his solution can be used in sports and daily life; it can instill proper discipline and make life more enjoyable.

He shows how sport players who are successful describe their high performance as freedom, natural, and easy; as coming out of nowhere and requiring no thought. This occurs because players don’t need to think, struggle, or worry; their subconscious, which knows how to act correctly, does the work. Nervousness, for example, is natural and neutral. It doesn’t help or hinder performance. The answer to nervousness is “just let them be. If allowed (rather than fought), they will clear up on their own…. Simply quite down and contrast the feeling of willpower with the feelings of stillpower, ease, clarity, and responsiveness…. The zone (of success) exists in the depths of every person’s soul.”

Thus, to site another example, the general practice of coaches passionately motivating their players will work, at best, only for a short while and will not give the players the same success and satisfaction that comes from their own inner being. In contrast, stillpower, he writes will establish an enjoyable way of life.… (plus d'informations)