The Winner's Toolbox: How to Create Success, Sustain High Performance and Achieve the Life You Desire
By Kunk C Ryan
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About this ebook
Do you feel like you’re building your life without a blueprint?
If so, you’re not alone.
You don’t have to stay stuck. It’s time to access the tools you need to create the life you want—mentally, professionally, emotionally, and physically. The Winner’s Toolbox
Kunk C Ryan
Ryan C. Kunk is a powerhouse entrepreneur with a love for training eager individuals to achieve unfailing strength-internally and externally. Ryan has never worked in the corporate sector, instead focusing for a decade on his passion: launching several successful businesses and forming the KSM Sports and Fitness brand. KSM is an all-encompassing fitness community offering in-person and online training, a fully equipped indoor facility, and innovations like The Perfect Posture Pack. If you are ready to make lifestyle changes for a lifetime, connect with Ryan at TheWinnersToolbox.com.
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The Winner's Toolbox - Kunk C Ryan
Ready for a deep dive into the finer points of winning? Ryan Kunk provides a toolbox forged from trials and triumphs experienced on the fields of life, sports, and business. Read, and you’ll receive an education. Implement, and you’ll taste transformation.
—Kary Oberbrunner, Author of Elixir Project, Day Job to Dream Job, The Deeper Path, and Your Secret Name
The Winner’s Toolbox shows you how it’s possible to overcome the odds. Ryan shares his methods to take a bad life situation that looks doomed to failure and rebuild it into a truly solid and beautiful place. If you already have these tools, this book may help you to sharpen them and improve your mental health.
—Alice A. Hale, MD, Psychiatrist
Ryan’s passion, energy, and drive, as well as his desire to help others, has always been something I admired. I’ve seen his methods and approach with athletes make a significant difference on the field but also in life. The Winner’s Toolbox extends his lessons and strategies for a life of success to any type of reader. It is truly inspiring!
— Bev Hoyng, Managing Director,
global financial institution
The Winner’s Toolbox is Ryan’s story of his pursuit of winning at life. He has endured many challenges and obstacles along the way but has kept moving and beating the odds.
—Tom Kunk, Retired Military Officer
(Colonel), U.S. Army
Ryan gave me an opportunity and chance when other people wouldn’t. The life I live today has to do with the tools Ryan taught me. The Winner’s Toolbox gives you the tools and resources to live your dream and build your future. Working hard has taught me that individual goals are only accomplished through a sacrifice of time, energy, and sweat!
— Anthony Turner, Athletic Director and Head Varsity Football Coach,
Fairfield Christian Academy
I’ve known Ryan for a long time and have seen, firsthand, both his struggles and successes. He’s done it his way, and in this book, he’s going to challenge you to do likewise. His story is worth reading and adding to your toolbox. Check it out.
—Chet Scott, Built to Lead
The Winner’s Toolbox
How to Create Success, Sustain High Performance, and Achieve the Life You Desire
Ryan C. Kunk
Copyright 2017 Ryan C. Kunk
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by Author Academy Elite
PO Box 43
Powell, OH 43035
www.AuthorAcademyElite.com
All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without prior written permission of the publisher. The only expectation is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
www.zondervan.com
The NIV
and New International Version
are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
Illustrations by Gatekeeper Press
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64085-049-1
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-64085-050-7
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-64085-051-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017908959
For my wife, Nicole,
an amazing woman whose love, compassion, strength, and loyalty have inspired me and countless others.
For my parents.
From a young age, they instilled in me the tools I needed to build my blueprint.
I love you and feel honored to call you my family.
Contents
Foreword by Peter Kunk
Introduction
My Life Story
Part 1: Foundation
Chapter 1: Building Your Toolbox
Chapter 2: Three Tools
Chapter 3: Putting the Three Tools Together
Part 2: You
Chapter 4: Purpose
Chapter 5: Dreams
Chapter 6: Hard Work
Part 3: Choices
Chapter 7: Attitude
Chapter 8: Beliefs
Chapter 9: Faith
Part 4: Life
Chapter 10: Family
Chapter 11: Role Models and Mentors
Chapter 12: Social Influence
Part 5: Team
Chapter 13: Goals
Chapter 14: Leadership
Chapter 15: Between the Numbers
Part 6: Health
Chapter 16: Physical Health
Chapter 17: Personal Health
Chapter 18: Mental Health
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Endnotes
Foreword
It was the fall of 1990, Notre Dame was playing Michigan, and I had the good fortune of landing two tickets to the game. I knew right away who was coming with me: my son and little pal, Ryan. That was the beginning of Ryan’s love affair with football, competition, and those immortal stories of athletes who, against all odds, realized their big dreams.
Ryan would collect every football program, devouring stats, player names, feature stories, and—as the years progressed—personally meeting many of those star athletes. Ryan’s questions were always the same, and no detail was too small or idea too crazy. He was relentless in trying to understand what made these men and women top performers in their sports. He wanted to integrate those same habits and processes into his own life and develop a program to share with others.
I have had a front row seat watching a young man passionately pursue his big dreams, play and excel as an athlete, and most importantly, develop the mental strength, resilience, and faith that would allow him to beat cancer and a life-threatening, debilitating virus. I know you will enjoy this inspiring story, and I have no doubt you will find the tools you need to reach your full potential as an athlete, leader, or student.
Three Reasons Why I Love This Book
One, it starts at a foundational level, offering you the tools that will enable you to define a strong sense of purpose for your life, core principles for living, and a strong sense of identity that gives you the confidence and courage to meet adversity and the challenges of life head-on.
Two, Ryan has developed this material for the past 20 years, studying D-One college playbooks, top leadership programs from sports and business, and the best leaders, coaches, and athletes in the game.
Three, I have had a front row seat watching a young man passionately pursue his dreams, with an unbridled passion. Ryan has faced tremendous adversity, challenges, critics, and naysayers, and with tremendous support from his family and an incredible wife, he wrote this inspiring story!
Peter Kunk
Build to Lead Partner, Executive Coach,
Speaker, Consultant, Certified Positive
Psychology Practitioner
Introduction
He’s awake!
my mom yelled to my sister and dad. I opened my eyes after being in a coma-like state for about three weeks with encephalitis and viral meningitis. It damn near killed me, but I was ready to get out of that hospital bed. I moved my legs over, put both feet down, started to stand, and fell face forward. Thank god, my dad was there to catch me. As he did, I noticed the cath bag attached to me. I was disoriented, confused, and scared, wondering why couldn’t I stand on my own.
And that is just one of my many life stories.
I have it made, guys! I’m 35 years old, have been married for three years, and we have one special little nugget on the way in October 2017. We have two black labs named Snoop and Luda. I am an entrepreneur, and I take pride in saying that I have only interviewed for one job (and that lasted six years). I love to work out with weights, hiking, and tennis. I just love activity. I am an avid waterfowl hunter, and I enjoy nothing more than being out in the blind with my wife, Nicole, and my two dogs. My wife hunts, goes to every sporting event, and loves the UK Wildcats.
I feel good about where my life experiences have taken me, but it hasn’t always been that way.
Do you know what the real secret to life is? It’s a journey. And as long as you learn how to grow, be resilient, love, and lead through your life journey, you will reach your goals along the way.
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning the lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle, when the sun comes up, you’d better be running!¹
—Christopher McDougall
This quote represents why I try to learn and gain as much knowledge and as many tools as I can. I want to be running when the sun comes up. If I’m not learning or growing each day, I might as well be dinner for the lion.
Think of your life journey as a system. Systems require work to assemble, study to perfect, and consistency to sustain—try, try again, and keep going strong. Assembly requires tools, and once you have all the tools you know you’ll need, you will keep those tools in your personal toolbox for continued use. Similarly, a life journey system requires the proper balance of your personal life tools.
For example, in life, you encounter many obstacles and challenges along the way. Tools are skills that help you get through life’s challenges and roadblocks. It’s important to pull life lessons from experiences—good and bad—and then identify and develop your tools so that you can turn to them when you need to.
Each part of this book will focus on a key fundamental area of your life. These tools will help you analyze how you operate best and suggest methodologies that will produce a positive life outcome. Once defined, these tools will make up your life toolbox.
Once you build up your toolbox, this book will teach you the best way to use your personal tools. How can they increase task efficiency? How can they maximize results? How can building a system allow you to live life to your utmost potential?
My Life Story
Our life walks are stories unfolding before us. I believe that if we can identify those stories—the obstacles and successes along the way—we can each share our takeaways and help others on their journeys.
Like you, the challenges that I have faced are what make my story. Is my story any better or worse than the next person’s? No way! It’s a piece of the puzzle—good or bad—and this book is a judgment-free zone. So, as I work to tell my story, I invite you to think about yours.
Welcome to the life of me. Many experiences, challenges, and lessons have brought me to the point where I am ready to share and assist others in finding the tools that will help them navigate life’s experiences. I’m still growing and moving forward every day. I am working toward and achieving new dreams all the time. And that’s what I want for you.
I can honestly say that I never dreamt of writing a book like this. Then again, I never thought my story could impact others. Hoping it can, and hoping yours will do the same one day, my goal in all of this is to touch as many young adults, athletes, business professionals, coaches, parents, teachers, groups, clubs, and teams as possible. I want to help anyone who loves to grow, learn, and pull lessons from their experiences to apply to life. This is my collection of life materials, fine-tuned like Eric Clapton’s guitar (for the older generation) or John Legend’s piano (for the millennials).
How fine-tuned can your toolbox be? How many tools can you fit inside? That part is up to you. Average projects call for an average toolbox. People who aim for an even higher quality job will try to find the best of the best! Those who push it to the limits have to customize their toolbox to accomplish greatness. Are you going to settle for average? Will you push the limits? Are