In his new book, Ready to Win, Matthew Mitchell, the former head coach of the greatly triumphant University of Kentucky women’s basketball team, offers secrets for sustained success that he honed through his 20-year coaching career in NCAA collegiate basketball. His method focuses on attaining a mindset of world-class preparation that promises to position readers to win over the long term, whatever their pursuit.
Ready to Win’s underlying premise is that consistent and diligent preparation effectively positions anyone to win over and over through the long run. Committing to driving toward excellence, and doing what is necessary to get there, provides a confidence boost when facing any high pressure situation.
Mitchell states, “A well-prepared leader and his team may lose individual battles, but overall, a consistently prepared leader literally cannot lose.”
Packed with entertaining and edifying anecdotes from coaching that involve dissecting wins, losses, and swerves, Mitchell keeps his discussion on how to achieve championship-level preparation lively and relatable for readers looking for a path to success. Starting with how to identify the level of preparation in which we currently fall — casual, cursory, compliant, committed, or constant — he describes the steps to take in committing to advancing to higher levels.
A particularly meaningful chapter discusses how to adopt a mindset of excellence, in which always doing one’s best becomes its own reward and makes for a life well lived. Mitchell shares how he attained this principle both from his father’s approach to giving one’s all to any project, as well as from his Boy Scout leader’s philosophy of leaving every campsite better than they found it. This mindset creates a habit of always driving toward excellence in every pursuit — and is one that serves well for achieving our highest level.
Ready to Win offers an actionable formula for instilling a routine of constant preparation. From clarifying goals — and also subgoals — to determining strategy, and formulating and executing a plan, the framework positions readers to win over and over again. Fundamentally, Mitchell emphasizes that growth should never stop, and growth requires mastering preparation.
Explains Mitchell, “Think of the most successful coaches and business leaders. Was there any chance Warren Buffet was not going to be successful at whatever he chose? Would Pat Summit or John Wooden have failed anywhere? No chance, because they did not leave it up to chance. Focused, constant preparers achieve sustained success.”
Especially useful for readers motivated to get started executing Mitchell’s preparation formula is his downloadable “Ready to Win Journal,” with worksheets to help stay accountable and on track in their winning preparation venture.
Mitchell’s Ready to Win is an invitation to begin believing in ourselves and our ability to attain our goals — in sports, in business, and in life.
Learn more at www.coachmatthewmitchell.com.
Garth Thomas