Autobiography of Carli Lloyd
Autobiography of Carli Lloyd

I read four or more different types of books at the same time. I finished two last night (Code Warriors, NSA’s Codebreakers by Stephen Budiansky and Carli Lloyd When Nobody Was Watching). Reading how successful people from all disciplines decided what they wanted and how they achieved it has always been inspirational to me.

I decided to share my thoughts about Carli Lloyd’s book because there are many things in it that all of us can benefit from in our lives. I don’t follow soccer (men or women’s). I didn’t know who Carli Lloyd was until I read her book. I liked what I read.

Her book is a chronology of her progress from being a good amateur soccer player to one of the world’s top professional players. I love a saying from Yogi Berra – “Baseball is 90% physical and the other half is mental.” I think this applies to any sport and to any entrepreneurial business. Your mindset is key to what you do.  Carli certainly had to develop mental toughness to succeed.

To improve, in any aspect of your life, especially in the professional realm (business or sports), you need a mentor/coach. Carli found one. He assessed her abilities early on regarding his five pillars of success in the soccer world – technical skill, tactical awareness, physical power, mental toughness and character. She scored well in some and not in others. To become the best in the world she had to excel in all of them continuously.  It proved difficult.

Carli faced many problems in addition to mental toughness – family, support, managerial styles, etc. Self doubt crept in periodically and had to be expunged. I liked the personal reflections at the various stages of her career because it is rare to get inside the head of someone and understand what they saw and felt and how they addressed the problems at those times.

Not all of us will become world famous professional athletes. But, we can strive to improve our lives by seeing how many problems we face that are common to sports (and business) leaders and learn from their mistakes and how we might make ourselves better in the process. I strongly recommend this book to my audience. It is a relatively easy read, even if you don’t understand the basics of soccer.  I did not and still do not know the basics of how to play offense and defense of soccer.

This is a great start to 2017 for those who want to improve.

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