Gifted: 8 Steps to Succeeding in Sport, Work, and Life

Unlock your natural gifts and succeed in sport, work, and life.

The ability to succeed already exists within you. To unlock your potential, you must recognize and embrace your innate talents and abilities. Gifted: 8 Steps to Succeeding in Sport, Work, and Life will inspire you to believe in your natural gifts and achieve excellence across all aspects of your life.

Renowned sport psychology consultant and scientist Robert Schinke has helped hundreds of Olympic and professional athletes realize their unique gifts, and he can do the same for you. In Gifted, he shares eight lessons to guide you onto the life path you desire and deserve:

1.  Remember your natural gifts
2.  Identify forces that pull you away from your gifts
3.  Use your gifts to respond to change in your life and remain authentic
4.  Appreciate recurring glimpses of your gifts and use them to reinvigorate your purpose
5.  Use your gifts to endure life’s challenges
6.  Transcend average levels of achievement by using your gifts in crucial settings
7.  Apply your gifts across multiple areas of your life
8.  Encourage others to explore their own gifts

Throughout these lessons, you will discover how successful athletes, coaches, educators, and service industry professionals use their natural gifts to achieve their goals. You will find inspirational quotes to motivate you on your path and key reminders that highlight the most important ideas from each lesson. In addition, action items throughout the book offer practical activities to help you recognize your own strengths and limitations so you can become the best version of yourself.

There exists in you a sizeable and brilliant potential, where your gifts are boundless. Gifted will help you uncover and cultivate your inner gifts to achieve harmony and success in your life.

Robert J. Schinke, EdD, is a professor of kinesiology and health sciences at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. He is a distinguished professor in several high-profile international universities and a Canada Research Chair. He serves as senior coeditor for the International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology and editor in chief of the Journal of Sport Psychology in Action. His research has been profiled by leading national and international granting agencies, including the International Olympic Committee’s Advanced Olympic Research Program, and his scientific publications have spanned more than 200 works on the topics of mental health, identity, inclusiveness, life transitions, and context-driven practice. Schinke currently serves as president of the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP). He previously served as president of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), and he is a fellow of various sport and exercise psychology societies. Since 2000, Schinke has worked extensively with world-champion professional athletes as well as athletes at several Olympic Games. His work and ideas have been featured in USA Today, The Globe and Mail, Al Jazeera, HBO, and Showtime, among many other media outlets.