Chapter 8: The Courage of Your Convictions

I know it has taken me way too long to finally finish my posts from Cal Ripken Jr.'s book "Get in the Game," but here are the Ripken Principles from the 8th and final chapter.

1. When criticized, take it with a grain of salt. People are entitled to their opinions.


2. Stubbornness can be a positive trait in helping you persevere through some tough times. It can help you overcome injuries, and it can aid you in dealing with unfair criticism.


3. When the chips are down, a good manager knows he can always count on his best people to be present.


4. When you're a little bit sick or injured, the answer is not to take time off. The answer is to keep going.


5. You can insulate yourself from physical injury by playing all out.


6. By going all out all the time, you are likely to attract the attention of your managers and teammates. That will, in turn, make you more valuable to the organization.


7. When you believe in something and you think it's right, you have to be strong enough to have the courage to stand up for it.


8. Do not let the enormity of the moment take you outside of what you know you are capable of doing.

Chapter 7: Life Management

1. In order to play in every game, you have to take good care of yourself year-round.


2. As you get older, adjust your exercise and maintenance programs to handle the inevitable aging process.


3. There is a direct connection between physical fitness and mental strength.


4. The secret of everything you do is between your ears.


5. If you try to separate the professional and personal aspects of your life, then you have to ask yourself which is more important. In the grand scheme of things, it's all important.


6. The organization you work for has a lot to do with your ability to achieve a balance between the personal and the professional sides of life.


7. Helping out in your community will come back to you in ways that you never expected.


8. It's whats you choose to do in life, and how you choose to live, that really make you happy. Your job should be a vehicle for your life, not your entire life.

Chapter 6: Trusting Relationships

1. It doesn't matter how many of your techniques you share with the other guy. Hr still has to apply them.


2. When you display kindness and decency to your teammates, it will be returned.


3. Good-natured fun is important in building relationships and strong bonds.


4. If you speak to your teammates regularly, misunderstandings will be cut to a minimum, and that promotes stability on the team.


5. There's a wealth of information you can glean from members of the competition. In order to gain access to it, however, you have to build relationships.


6. Don't sit back and wonder what your future is going to be. Open dialogue. Help the manager manage you.


7. Money isn't everything. Living where you want to live, being part of a great organization, and maintaining long term friendships are the most important elements of personal happiness.


8. Find a way to take the high road and play the hand you're dealt.

Chapter 5: Anticipation

1. All situations aren't equal. Treat every person, every opportunity, and every deal as a separate and distance entity. A cookie-cutter approach is simply ineffective.


2. When you feel some sort of pending danger, don't be afraid to send a message if you think it's appropriate.


3. It's possible to win every game, but it just isn't very realistic to think you'll go undefeated.


4. Even if you're zero for ten in the morning, the law of averages can make your afternoon great.


5. The best way to move forward is with a positive frame of mind.


6. Define your own success. Plan for the end at the beginning. But remember, you can't play tomorrow's game until it gets here.


7. Even though you execute in the short term, you can, with out a great deal of effort, prepare for the future.


8. A desire to work every day, coupled with a willingness to do whatever is needed, can open up doors that you would, otherwise, never expect to walk through.

Chapter 4: Preparation

1. The ability to perform consistently with excellence is a result of both physical and mental preparation.


2. Interact with people from whom you might be bale to glean an advantage. Gain access to key, up-to-date, and reliable information.


3. Proper preparation helps to create a better game plan. It increases your chance of success and decreases the risk that somehting will go wrong.


4. If it's always somebody else's fault, you end up never solving your problems. But if you focus on your own performance, rather than blaming outside forces or other people for your failures, you have a chance to get better.


5. If you take care of all the little things, you never have on big thing to worry about.


6. The more ways you find to contribute to the team, the more valuable you will be to the manager.


7. Keep your destiny in your own hands as much as possible.


8. Before every game, ask yourself, "What can I do to help is win this particular day?"

Chapter 3: Love What You Do

1. The secret to happiness is not in the money you make. It's in the quality of work and how it makes you feel.




2. It's easy to go to work day after day, month after month, year after year, when you really love what you do.




3. Always remember, you can learn something from everyone.




4. Learning starts with awareness. Then, when you're aware of something, you get curious. You want to dig deeper. You want answers. And when you're seeking answers to your questions, you're learning. Awareness-Curiosity-Learning.




5. The one thing that can knock you out of the lineup quicker than an injury is change.




6. If you never stop learning, you can usually handle what comes along and adapt to the change.




7. Adversity draws people closer together. You become closer friends, better teammates, and help support each other in little ways that might not have happened otherwise.




8. In the midst of adversity, to carry you through, you can always fall back on something you love.

Chapter 2: A Strong Will To Succeed

1. Turn a negative into a positive.


2. Channel your aggressiveness in a more productive direction.


3. Be willing to swing at a bad pitch. To succeed, you can't be afraid to fail.


4. You can only prepare so much. At some point, you have to test your plans.


5. Cheating your blind grandma at cards isn't fulfilling.


6. Healthy competition within an organization is good. It can be motivating, synergistic, exciting, and fun. It can also lead to great success.


7. When you give you word, you're committed. True commitment involves your organization, your teammates, your job, and your profession.


8. When your teammates are counting on you to be in the game, never, ever, let them down.

The Right Values

This past year I read Cal Ripken Jr.'s book "Get in the Game." At the end of every chapter Cal gives Eight Ripkin Principles that apply to the chapter. Over the next few days or weeks I will be posting the 8 Principles from each chapter. Chapter 1 is entitled "The Right Values" and here are the 8 Principles:

1. When it comes to perseverance, hard-work ethic is indispensable. It increases your chances of success at any endeavor, in any field.


2. Never let anyone outwork you. Do not take for granted that you have a job.


3. If you don't want to work, you shouldn't have hired out. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.


4. Set a standard of excellence at your position. Remember, perfect practice makes perfect.


5. Be a straight shooter. If you're asked a question, give a direct answer.


6. Honesty and integrity help a person earn trust. You cannot persevere in any organization without the trust of others.


7. Integrity is being counted on to give your all and perform your job to the best of your ability at any moment, in any situation, every single time.


8. Play every game as if it were the most important game of the season.