The Quality of Effort Workbook is now available as an 8.5×11 paperback (see details below) and as an Amazon Kindle Edition

The Workbook contains the identical text as the Kindle and trade paperback editions of The Quality of Effort, and includes content-based, end-of-chapter questions and a full index. The paperback Workbook’s front cover image is above. Click for a PDF image of the back cover.

A preview of the “About This Workbook” passage, workbook pages xix-xx, is below.

The Quality of Effort Workbook
ISBN: 978-0-9627828-3-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012949975
8.5″x11″ Perfect-bound
206 pages
Fully Indexed
2″ outer margins for notes
Writing space at the end of each chapter

About The Workbook

The Quality of Effort Workbook is designed with the intention of helping interested student-athletes, parents and coaches move forward with their own development in the roles they currently play, and may play in the future, within youth, interscholastic and intercollegiate sport. While the questions and exercises at the conclusion of each chapter are based on the chapter’s specific content, and often focus on one of the three above-mentioned roles – student-athletes, parents or coaches – these suggestions for reflection and practice more often than not have value for anyone, regardless of role, who is willing to do the work.

Readers already familiar with the 2013 edition of The Quality of Effort will recall the two questions with which each chapter ended (and which are developed more fully in Chapter One of both books):

1. Is there anything in this chapter that brings up strong feelings of agreement or disagreement? What is it that brings up a sense of resonance or aversion for you?
2. What is it about you—about who you are and how you experience the world—your values, beliefs and experiences, such that you respond to this chapter as you do?

These questions, deliberately wide-open, can be applied to anything in our lives – simply replace the words “this chapter” in either question with whatever currently has your attention, and engage the respective inquiries: 1) What is it out there that I’m responding to, and 2) What is it within me that leads me to respond as I do?

The Workbook’s chapter-specific questions and exercises provide the opportunity to go deeper with this inquiry, with more focus on specific content and within each reader’s unique context. In response to these questions and exercises, sometimes reflection will be appropriate, sometimes a written exercise or two will help, sometimes a conversation with a teammate, coach, student-athlete, parent or friend will open important doors, sometimes some form of ongoing practice is called for, and often some combination of these, daunting as it may seem, will help keep you on the good path and aligned with your true trajectory.

I encourage you to play with the questions – tweak them in a way that best addresses how and where you find yourself – not to find an easy way out if you know there’s work to be done, but to inquire in such a way that the inquiry is authentically yours. If a question seems not to apply to you right now, first check to see if perhaps you’re avoiding something you need to address, and if you’re comfortable that that’s not the case, skip the question. You can always come back to it if it becomes relevant, or leave it alone for good. If you’re a coach and a parent, perhaps one of these roles might provide a deeper exploration of the questions than the other, or perhaps you might benefit from reflections on your earlier years as a student-athlete. Use the questions as a point of departure and allow yourself to make the journey you need to make.

If you choose to engage the written questions in this Workbook, and I hope you do, I strongly encourage you to “freewrite” your responses. Simply put, get your response on the page in whatever way works for you: make a list, create a chart, jot down some notes, write complete or incomplete sentences, and don’t worry about getting anything “right.” Write freely. Spelling, grammar and punctuation don’t matter for this writing (I’m a licensed English teacher with the authority for such dispensation). Write for your own insight and development. While you’re welcome to share what you write with folks of your choosing, you need not share it with anyone. If what you write is brilliant and you decide to publish it, great – then you can edit, revise and proofread.

Engage this Workbook in a way that serves you. Perhaps your authentic engagement will raise questions that aren’t in the book and that you need to ask. Great. Ask. Respond. Go deeper when it makes sense, and move on when it’s time. Trust yourself and explore some perspectives other than your own.