ELEVATE AND DOMINATE

The Hall of Fame football player and current coach aims to up your game.

“It’s not just enough to TALK the TALK. You gotta WALK the WALK.” So writes Sanders, who, one might think, wore out the shift key on his laptop pounding out this hortatory treatise. “WHEN YOU LOOK GOOD, YOU FEEL GOOD. WHEN YOU FEEL GOOD, YOU PLAY GOOD. AND WHEN YOU PLAY GOOD, THEY PAY GOOD,” he exalts, opining that a winner lays out his—and this book is definitely geared to men—garb the night before and is thus prepared to conquer the world once the last button is fastened. As in his 1998 memoir Power, Money & Sex, the author is unflinchingly honest about his own struggles with life: He once tried to commit suicide by driving his car over a cliff, and early on in this book, he admits to the fear that he’s been diminished recently by losing toes to femoral arterial blood clots “that made my anatomy look like I had been smoking for thirty years.” His message there is suitably urgent: “Keep going. Keep moving. Don’t surrender. No matter how bad you think it is, DON’T QUIT.” Refreshingly, while Sanders is a coach of the body, he also honors the mind. He encourages readers to read and to make it a point to learn something new every day. “Whether it’s through music, reading, podcasts, or journaling, you gotta fill your head with positive thoughts and possibilities instead of dwelling on your doubts,” he counsels. Refreshingly, he allows for mental rests and resets as a critical component of self-care, making even his most blustery slogans—e.g., “Don’t Allow My CONFIDENCE to Offend Your INSECURITY”—seem a touch less boastful.

The all-caps start to wear, but given the accomplishments of its source, this is a helpful addition to the self-help genre.