Preliminary Research Report

My “discourse” will be about my role as an athlete. Ever since I was a little child I was always playing some kind of sport, whether it was organized  or just for fun. Playing sports has many benefits, and I feel that I will be able to enjoy playing sports my entire life. I choose to write my discourse about being an athlete because I believe that playing sports and getting regular exercise is vital for the health of every american. Many people believe that participation in sports can help build character and teach such values as teamwork and perseverance. Today sports are still considered an avenue toward self-improvement, but they also function for many youths as an alternative to involvement with gangs or drugs. Up until now sports have always been a healthy way to get exercise and have fun, but now I find that I am getting bored. I am struggling to find new ways to exercise, desperately trying to change my same old, tired routine. Through the years of sports I think that the essence of sports that was originally instilled in me has faded, and I try to ask myself why I started playing sports in the first place. For this reason, my “discourse” will try to capture the true meaning of sportsmanship and the role that motivation plays in every single sport.

The primary text that I will be using for this assignment is James Allen’s As a Man Thinketh. I find that some of this text is difficult to interpret at some times, which is partly why I choose to write about it. The text is a highly inspirational book that cannot help but to motivate you in some way. James Allen talks about how if you think bad thoughts then eventually bad things  will manifest themselves in your life. Likewise, if you think about good things then they will eventually happen to you. He goes on to explain further that when you think about something you begin to attract that circumstance into your life. Moreover, he explains that these circumstances don’t just happen out of chance. Allen says that once you cultivate a thought, you eventually act on it, which affects your outward circumstances. The text reflects the mind-set that an athlete, or any other successful person, must have in order to achieve success. I believe that this text will help me to accurately describe the amount of thinking and will-power that a person has to possess in order to be sucessful in sports.

The rest of the resources that I will be using to write my discourse are ones that I have discovered through my research. A majority of my resources are of a philosophical nature, which I will use to help talk about the motivational aspects of sports and exercise. Other resources include some workout magazines and essays that deal with sports and the dilema about sports and the health of many Americans.