What your middle school basketball coach never knew he was teaching you...

Or maybe he did, in which case he's a genius!!

I recently joined the neighborhood YWCA. Which, as many people do NOT know, is a virtually equal counterpart to the more commonly known YMCA. Rest assured, after careful pre-enrollment and questioning (and now after a week's worth of visiting), it is truly a co-ed establishment. And I have no problem supporting the cause of "eliminating racism, empowering women" while I shave off those flabby Christmas calories.

Last Thursday I had the basketball court entirely to myself. The end of my routine entails a set of free throws, as anyone who's ever played organized basketball at any level has been coached to do. Remembering what I'd learned way back when I was good enough to make the "White" (i.e. "second-string") squad my Freshman year of high school --- positioning your feet, setting your legs, getting a good grip on the ball, visualize the shot, follow-through, etc.

10 shots later I'd made 8/10. 30 shots after that I was 38/40. 30 in a ROW!!!! At the time I was thrilled... not AS thrilled as if my roommate (a high school varsity starter and notoriously better at basketball than I) had been there to witness, but excited to have achieved the feat nonetheless. Not to mention I had to leave the free throw line every time to get the rebound, walk back to the line, recollect myself, and deliver the next shot.

How did I, after months of basketball hibernation, manage this? Latent muscle memory? Doubtful. Luck? Perhaps. But perhaps a subtle lesson is there after all...

MENTAL TOUGHNESS

It broke down into three key components, which I think are important for myself, other entrepreneurs, and anyone dedicated to anything.

1. Rhythm

The key here is not what your rhythm is or what you do when you're in a rhythm... it's getting into a rhythm in the first place!! Because I'd been warming up and shooting around prior to my time on the free throw line, my muscles were tuning into making a higher percentage of shots. I was focusing special attention to keeping my elbow cocked at the same degree, bending my legs the same amount, following through the same way, and so on. Through repetition it became second nature.

In the same way, when you focus on anything - personal skills, an organizational issue, defects in a new prototype - if you pay attention to correcting the right details, and you PRACTICE, those corrections become second nature and you automatically prevent the same mistake from surfacing.

Form good habits, become their slave.

2. Forward Focus

When things started going well at 10 in a row, 11 in a row, 12 in a row... it was difficult to keep my cool. Pressure was mounting as I knew with each additional shot, the odds of this streak were dwindling, and yet, with each new make I was that much more excited to keep the streak alive!! But this very excitement would have been the end of my success, had I been focusing on my PAST SUCCESS and not at the task AHEAD.

You can see where I'm going here. It was a good mental exercise to have to tell myself to put the streak out of my mind and focus on repeating the same formula that had produced the streak in the first place. Successful ideas/products/systems are meant to celebrated not with parties and red ribbon and letting them sit as a check-mark on someone's timeline, but with careful attention to replicating and pulling the success into the future.

3. Faith

A bit on the softer side, but it's undeniably there. Had an inch of doubt crept into my mind, that would have been one inch to the right and I'm tossin up a brick clanging off the rim.

Once you've gotten into a rhythm, think you've figured out a successful formula, and remained focus on replicating that success... you must be prepared to cast off all remaining doubt, breathe deeply, and take the plunge (or in this case, the free throw).


"Remembering you're going to die is the best way to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose." --- Steve Jobs