Customer Reviews

The Dynamic Path: Access the Secrets of Champions to Achieve Greatness Through Mental Toughness, Inspired Leadership and Personal Transformation

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I found this book to be very, very helpful. Before explaining how so, I want to caution potential purchasers.

Much of this book is chock full of snippets about well known athletes. Although the successful from other fields get some coverage, the authors' love for athletics rings strong. I bought the book based on the cover touting it as a book on great leaders...and quickly became discouraged with the plethora of snippets on athletic success, most of them not even involving team sports (where is the leadership in non-team competition?).

As I read on, I also became troubled that the author's examples are very, very heavily male dominated, not surprising in view of his love for non-team competitive sports, but very surprising in view of the author being a super star recruiter in the business world where female power (and success) has become very, very evident.

The good news is that the book ends very strong. Chapter 8 on "Finding a Calling" is alone worth the purchase price. (Readers who want to learn more on this subject will enjoy Brad Swift's excellent book on living a "Life on Purpose.") Astute readers will likely correlate that the failure to find a calling explains the many second life failures that the author serves up (but does not explicitly connect the dots).

Personally I found this book to be very, very helpful, notwithstanding the aforementioned shortcomings. I am currently finishing extensive research on personal peak performance in preparation for the upcoming taping of my Peak Performance program. I found the author to be very thoughtful on the subject and to have done a good job researching some of the work that is out there on the subject. I got great value by testing my own hypothesis against his theories of personal peak performance. We are not totally in synch but the mere exercise of comparison has greatly enriched my own thinking. And for that, I am grateful to an author whose personal transformation appears to be a work in process (as it is for all of us). I am looking forward to this prolific author's upcoming writings as I fully expect that he will write an even better book as he continues to discover the incredible power of passionate purpose and its impact on champions, male and female, in all fields of endeavor.

Citrin uses dozens of interviews with varied and impressive personalities to talk about three basic stages on the path to greatness: becoming a champion, being a great leader and leaving a legacy. Citrin has a great writing style that makes the book hard to put down. One other book I highly recommend is Understanding: Train of Thought.

There are two reasons to read this book.

The first is to learn more about a wide array of people from contemporary interviews. This stories and quotes themselves make for good conversation starters, stories for a toast, etc.. The list of people Citrin met with is truly amazing and the fact that most of the people were interviewed for this project is great. You aren't reading an interpretation of a 40 year old quote but a fresh comment or story from people across generations, areas of expertise and perspectives.

The second is to have a thoughtful, reflective view of what you are hoping to accomplish with your life. Whether you are thinking about switching jobs, applying to school, drafting your first novel or just need a jolt to get you unstuck, Citrin's path can be helpful. Like similar books (e.g., The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People), The Dynamic Path is not a get rich quick scheme or a become powerful overnight checklist, but it is a thoughtful commentary about living a life that matters. I enjoyed the overall structure of the book and the notion that each step on the "path" built on the prior step.

A good long plane ride book when you can think about the stories and the synthesis the author draws away from the distractions of email and cell phones!

This book was refreashing in the material covered for inspiring action on a path toward creating a personal legacy.

Just finished this book. Its really good- surprised by the fact that I was a bit moved at the end. There's a profound question that the book is wrestling with- to help people make a life that matters. It is a longing that everyone has, and I think this theme will be a powerful message as the world is introduced to its concepts.

Glad to have read it.

When I found this book I was so excited to read the sample pages as I love , I mean I eat up motivational books like this. I thought this would contain even a grain of something new or at least interesting. One reviewer said this is a retread-all old stuff. I would not say that from the few pages I read. I would say it just went out into left field altogether. What does the Wright brothers investigation into the theories of dynamics have anything to do with anything? I actually started falling asleep after 3 pages and went to make coffee...at 7:30pm! I am guessing that with the authors writing style, whatever he has to say, could be condensed into 12 pages or less. And his Bill Bradley story was a snore as well. Please read the sample pages before buying. The author sounds sincere in trying to help people but wow, what a long winded writing style. Sorry to be so harsh but this is the most boring sample I ever read on Amazon.

I wanted to LOVE this book and when it showed up in it hardcover binding and jacket cover adorned with the red, white and blue ribbon replete with a compass in the form of a medal it did nothing to dampen my anticipation.

Suffice to say its arrival was the high point of this read.

The packaging clearly was better than the product. While the author is quite clear that his purpose is to "access the secrets of champions to achieve greatness through mental toughness, inspired leadership and personal transformation", he fails terribly when held accountable to his own words and standards.

This book shows the author to be slightly more than a sycophant and boot lick to the likes of Joan Benoit Samuelson, Roger Staubauch and Arnold Palmer to start - there are more, PLENTY more semi biographical accounts of people the author finds greatness in and, while I am in agreement with many of those he sites, I do not believe that was the intended premise of his book.

This book would grade considerably higher if it's title were "Some Really Impressive People And What They Have Accomplished" and it would be more truthful marketing if on the cover there was an adorable puppy wagging its tail looking up at its very patronizing yet approving master.

If you want to read about some very nice people who have done some really good things than you may want to take a gander otherwise I would do as the aforementioned Staubach would do on a third down and twenty. Pass.

As a Learning & Development Consultant and the parent of an elite athlete I found this book extremely rewarding. The examples, including those of Colin Powell, Bono and Tony Hawk, assisted my understanding of James Critin's lessons. I will constantly refer to this book, particularly with my child who is striving for selection in a national team. I would recommned this to professionals and parents alike as the "Dynamic Path" is relavent to both.

This book is a true inspiration from start to finish. It has inspired me to move past that 99 percent and give my full attention and potential to each activity that I pursue in the future. This book gives great inspirational stories for everyone to relate too and be inspired by.

I just loved the breadth of folks James Citrin interviews for this book. From the get go, I felt that his message was not focused simply on how amazing these individuals are just for the sake of touting their already known greatness (though many of the folks he interviews are not household names)but that his message emanated from his heart, where he holds a belief that we are all shareholders in the paths of these individuals, and we too are destined for inspired living if we so choose.

I am currently devising a curriculum for a brand of girls schools called the Girls Athletic Leadership Schools and the fact that James Citrin so clearly understands and articulates the 'edge' that athletes hold tight in their core as full people, not just as competitive athletes, was such a perfect story line for me at this point in my work.

I couldn't put the book down - it is so readable, the author is in conversation with the reader, not speaking down to the reader or sermonizing, and I appreciated that approach as opposed to an achievement guru attitude. I read through the book at a furious pace curious to see where we landed at the end. I spent a number of hours in the bathroom, the one room in our house where both my husband and 18 month old daughter give me my space. At one point while stashed away in the bathroom, I had forgotten my orange marking pen so in order to optimize my stolen time to get through the book, I opted to stay in the bathroom and use my eyebrow pencil to mark instead of risking being found by my family and having to put the book down for later.

Whether you are looking for the "secrets" of success, or get motivated by hearing about others' success, or you are looking for a way to define your own inspired life, this book will help you find your way...