It is basketball season and I love basketball. All my life I’ve played and coached youth basketball teams and one thing I can guarantee is that just about every player I’ve played with or coached has said they wanted to be the best. The problem is that saying it is the easy part. Putting forth the work and effort to actually do it is a whole other ball game.
So why don’t we do it? Why don’t we make the sacrifices necessary to be the best when we all say we want to be? To me, I think for the most part when we say we want to be the best we often are being genuine and sincere in that moment. What I believe happens though is that we lack a true commitment, and the discipline to get there over time. We want to be the best at that moment without considering all it will entail. Once we fully assess what it will take to get there, we falter. So normally our desire to be the best is conditioned on the amount of work and effort and time it will actually require of us.
Throughout my years in sports I’ve seen great athletes who had incredible potential to be really good but they squander their talent because they aren’t willing to work hard and put forth the effort required to maximize their talents. This is disheartening and even frustrating to me but often I think about how most of us do this in some way. Though it may not be athletic abilities each of us have talents that we squander. We fail to live up to the true potential of our abilities because we don’t want to work at it. I’ve learned that this practice just seems to be plain and simple human nature.
So believe me, I know it is hard to be the best but I think each of us can do more than we are. Just yesterday I woke up early in the morning while traveling in Dallas. It was still dark outside and it was pouring down rain. It was my morning to go out for a run. I had planned on it all week, and had recommitted to doing it in my head the night before. But now actually facing the task I had a million excuses of why I shouldn’t go: it was raining, it was cold, I didn’t want to have wet clothes and shoes traveling home later that evening, it was dark, I wasn’t familiar with the area, I’d probably have time in the evening to do it instead, etc. But to be honest, believe it or not, with basketball season upon us my competitive juices kicked in and my thoughts changed. I couldn’t help but think to myself, don’t I want to be the best I can be, don’t I want to be number one, how many others were staying home listening to the excuses inside their heads, didn’t I want to be different, isn’t this exactly what I was hoping my young athletes would do that I was coaching this season, wouldn’t I want them to push themselves and go out in the rain? I know I got a few stares from others as I entered the hotel lobby soaking wet after my run in the pouring rain but I felt great!
So at the beginning of this basketball season I’m making a commitment today to you that I’m going to be the absolute best I can be and not let anything stop me. I’m going to push myself to be the best in all that I do. I encourage you to join me and do the same. Let’s do this together!
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