Use this code GM3DL5XL to get 25% off unlimited copies of The Quality of Effort and The Quality of Effort Workbook through June 30, 2016.
The code is valid only at the book manufacturer’s site, and not on Amazon. Both books are available in print and Kindle editions on Amazon as well.
Kristofferson, who was a Rhodes Scholar, Golden Gloves boxer and a college football and rugby player, was born on June 22, 1936.
From October 21 through October 31, 2015 this coupon code, 8GP2PHU7, provides a 35% discount for both The Quality of Effort and The Quality of Effort Workbook when ordered directly from the manufacturer’s online store (coupon does not work on Amazon).
From “The Quality of Effort” Chapter 8:
“It is the job of coaches and parents to encourage those dreams [of playing sports as a career] and to prepare the student-athlete cognitively, emotionally, physically, socially and spiritually for the day…when a primary activity other than sport is appropriate. The student-athlete who receives only playing time and notoriety from his or her schooling is being cheated.”
Use Coupon Code 8GP2PHU7 for 35% off as many copies of The Quality of Effort and The Quality of Effort Workbook as you’d like between October 21 and October 31, 2015. Click here to order.
“The Quality of Effort inspires coaches and parents to divert their eyes from the scoreboard and focus on nurturing the heart, mind and body of today’s young athlete. Reggie Marra offers a blueprint that encourages our children to become not only better athletes but better people. He delivers a powerful message filled with humanity and honest answers to questions that we sometimes think but may not want to ask. The Quality of Effort is a wonderful read and I would recommend it to anyone who works with kids, is a kid, or is living vicariously through their kids (you know who you are).”
– Anthony Perrone, VP, Challenger Division, Cortland American Little League
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“The Quality of Effort has helped me reinterpret my career as a professional athlete – providing both relief and direction. The book’s message would have been invaluable years ago when I was starting out as well as at the height of my career. Reggie Marra offers a map to tomorrow’s competitive edge, a map that requires effort – not necessarily in doing more drills or pushups, but in taking responsibility for all aspects of your approach to life.”
– Ryan Leech, Professional Mountain Biker (Retired) and Integral Master Coach,™ http://ryanleech.
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Click here to order (and don’t forget your Coupon Code: 8GP2PHU7)!
From December 8 through December 16 this coupon code, 8GP2PHU7, provides a 35% discount for both The Quality of Effort and The Quality of Effort Workbook when ordered directly from the manufacturer’s online store (coupon does not work on Amazon).
From “The Quality of Effort” Chapter 8:
“It is the job of coaches and parents to encourage those dreams [of playing sports as a career] and to prepare the student-athlete cognitively, emotionally, physically, socially and spiritually for the day…when a primary activity other than sport is appropriate. The student-athlete who receives only playing time and notoriety from his or her schooling is being cheated.”
Use Coupon Code 8GP2PHU7 for 35% off as many copies of The Quality of Effort and The Quality of Effort Workbook as you’d like between December 8 and December 16, 2014. Click here to order.
“The Quality of Effort inspires coaches and parents to divert their eyes from the scoreboard and focus on nurturing the heart, mind and body of today’s young athlete. Reggie Marra offers a blueprint that encourages our children to become not only better athletes but better people. He delivers a powerful message filled with humanity and honest answers to questions that we sometimes think but may not want to ask. The Quality of Effort is a wonderful read and I would recommend it to anyone who works with kids, is a kid, or is living vicariously through their kids (you know who you are).”
– Anthony Perrone, VP, Challenger Division, Cortland American Little League
_____
“The Quality of Effort has helped me reinterpret my career as a professional athlete – providing both relief and direction. The book’s message would have been invaluable years ago when I was starting out as well as at the height of my career. Reggie Marra offers a map to tomorrow’s competitive edge, a map that requires effort – not necessarily in doing more drills or pushups, but in taking responsibility for all aspects of your approach to life.”
– Ryan Leech, Professional Mountain Biker (Retired) and Integral Master Coach,™ http://ryanleech.
_____
Click here to order (and don’t forget your Coupon Code: 8GP2PHU7)!
My wonderful niece, Yuni (Yunilka Nuñez), aka U.S. Navy Aviation Electrician’s Mate Nuñez, called me out to participate in the challenge, so here I am.
I’m doing this especially for my St. Anrthony’s, Nepera Park, Yonkers NY, Class of ’68 elementary school classmate, Rich Eletto, with whom I reconnected almost two years ago, and who was diagnosed with ALS several months ago. He’s got a great spirit and sense of humor.
To enhance my participation a bit, I’m going to donate a percentage of profits from the sale of The Quality of Effort and The Quality of Effort Workbook to the ALS Association for all sales through the end of September, 2014 as follows:
30% of profits from sales of both books purchased directly through the publisher’s e-stores (click on titles above or here for the book and here for the workbook).
The books are also available on Amazon, but the the publisher’s e-store pays a higher per-book royalty–so the 30% will be higher as well.
If you’d like multiple copies (5 or more) of either book for your organization or team, email me at rmarra@paradoxedge.com and I will give you a discount code. Same 30% donation applies.
I’d also like to acknowledge some friends, classmates and former students who set the example in the last few weeks: Gary Greenhill, Tim Holland and Tom Hanney (Sacred Heart High School, class of ’80), Tom Lyons (SHHS, ’81), Mark Maggiola (SHHS, ’75), and my classmates, Bunny Santullo—sorry for the “Smith” in the video, and Rose DeVito Nedwick, whom I forgot to mention in the video (SHHS, ’72), Mike Bardunias (Iona College), Chris Rogers (Salpointe Catholic via Cardinal Spellman in da Bronx), Steve Butala (Rich’s and my classmate at St. Anthony’s), and Michael Brant DeMaria (composer and musician extraordinaire).
In keeping with The Quality of Effort’s focus on sport as one among many healthy vehicles for ongoing human development and transformation (which Ryan Leech and I explored in our interview–see post below), in this show, which aired in June on CTV-21 in Connecticut, Lindsay Kelkres and I explore the transformative potentials of poetry, art in general, and Integral Coaching®.
“The Quality of Effort,” as it applies to sports and to the rest of our lives beyond the “arena,” ultimately comes down to living an aware life in love. Yikes, some readers might say. What’s love got to do with it?
Three perspectives on love, among others, have informed me over the years:
Briefly, imagine moving through your day each day with a wholehearted ‘yes’ to belonging, first to and with yourself–fully and unconditionally loving yourself with kindness and compassion amid all your beauty, blemishes, dreams, desires, regrets and judgments–all of you. Then imagine that same wholehearted yes to belonging to and with your family, your friends, your colleagues at work, your student-athletes, your opponents, strangers on the street…and take that as far as you can. Where do you draw the line for belonging?
Next, imagine your level of willingness to extend yourself–to go beyond what feels comfortable, in order to better understand who you are in the world, and your willingness to do that for others as well. For whom are you willing to feel some discomfort in order to help them see and live more clearly? Family? Friends? Colleagues…Strangers?
And imagine what it might feel like to engage yourself and the world at large without fear, or at least without the influence of fear on what you choose and how you behave. That includes everything from your life’s trajectory, to the outcome of the game, the at-bat, the free-throw. Imagine yourself living moment to moment without fear. Imagine your student-athletes competing without fear.
Any one of these, and all of them together comprise the quality of effort. Easy to understand, perhaps, and quite challenging to live. But why shoot for less?
That’s what love’s got to do with it, as far as I can tell.
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Foundation for Inner Peace. A Course in Miracles. 2nd ed. Glen Ellen CA: FIP, 1976.
Peck, M. Scott, M.D. The Road Less Traveled. New York: Touchstone-Simon & Schuster, 1978.
Steindl-Rast, Brother David. Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer: An Approach to Life in Fullness. New York/Ramsey: Paulist, 1984.
If you’ve been waiting for a book on youth, interscholastic and intercollegiate sport that honors and addresses the need for cooperation among student-athletes, parents and coaches—with a focus on what’s best for the student-athlete, welcome home.
The 2013 editions of The Quality of Effort and The Quality of Effort Workbook invite student-athletes, parents and coaches to observe and explore their unique and necessary roles in bringing about a healthy athletic experience. Reggie Marra writes through the soul of a poet-athlete-teacher-caregiver, and kid who got cut from the team he later went on to coach.
He takes us by the hand and challenges us to inquire into our own values, behaviors, and relationships within the complexity of the 21st-Century environments in which we live, learn, work and play. If we’re willing to take up the challenge, this inquiry helps us see ourselves and all those heroes and villains out there from increasingly comprehensive and balanced perspectives.
“Preaching” only what he practices, in The Quality of Effort, Reggie Marra authentically engages each of us to become increasingly more aware of our stories—the interpretations we choose, and how they affect, and even effect, what we do next as parents, coaches, student-athletes and human beings.
While focused on and in contemporary youth, interscholastic and intercollegiate sports, Marra calls on both ancient and modern wisdom: The Consolation of Philosophy, Spiral Dynamics, Man’s Search for Meaning and the Bhagavad Gita, and invites us into the worlds of Mary Catherine Bateson and Ken Wilber; Bob Knight and Boethius; Joan Benoit Samuelson and Don Beck; and Sacred Heart High School’s 1979-1980 boys’ junior varsity basketball team.
If you’re willing to explore the questions he raises, you may find that at its core The Quality of Effort is all about your favorite topic—you.
“While everyone is obsessed with the ‘All-American,’ Reggie Marra cares about the everyday athlete. As I read The Quality of Effort, I had constant flashbacks to my high school playing days. I know that if I had had this book back then, all of my athletic experiences would have been more productive and more enjoyable. This book will hit home for anyone who has ever competed in sports.”
– Mike Breen, Sportscaster, New York, on the 1st edition
Click on what you’d like to do or see next:
“The Quality of Effort has helped me reinterpret my career as a professional athlete – providing both relief and direction. The book’s message would have been invaluable years ago when I was starting out as well as at the height of my career. Reggie Marra offers a map to tomorrow’s competitive edge, a map that requires effort – not necessarily in doing more drills or pushups, but in taking responsibility for all aspects of your approach to life.”
– Ryan Leech, Professional Mountain Biker (Retired) and Professional Integral Coach,™ http://ryanleech.com/
The Quality of Effort 