Clutch: The Art of Excelling

Stress and work make us sometimes feel as though we are overwhelmed.  But according to this book that's when things are getting good.  The time that you have an opportunity to shine is when you find yourself in a "clutch" situation.  Clutch is when the pressure is on and you have the ability to perform well in spite of the pressure.  Interestingly, its not about working miracles in the moment.  Being clutch means not caving into the pressure.

The author demonstrates that staying focused on the task at hand is critical to success in a clutch situation. Don't focus on the emotions or the "what ifs," focus on what you know how to do and do it well in the face of pressure. 

Its a great book with great stories from the lives of famous and not so famous "clutch" people.    

Unbroken: A World War II Story

I am presently obsessed with a non-fiction book titled Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand.

It is the story of a World War II airplane crash survivor, Louie Zamperini, who is lost at sea then captured and horrifically interred as a POW by the Japanese.  The author makes the point that while being  lost at sea, starving and dying of thirst is bad -- being deprived of dignity is worse.  As she puts it "Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food and oxygen." The loss of dignity she finds can be as "lethal as a bullet."  The book places starvation and loss of dignity in stark contrast because our hero Louie gets to experience both with his very survival hanging by a thread.   Louie is a marvelous example of a person who chooses to keep his dignity in the face of oppression -- thereby being defined by himself, on his own terms rather than by his oppressors, whether his oppressor be Mother Nature or a Japanese Guard.

It is a wonderful example of what Steven Covey in the Seven Habits calls the "last of the human freedoms" -- between what happens to us and our response lies our freedom to choose the response.  "Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose."  Louie's choices and Hillenbrand's telling of the story make for a captivating and motivating read.