I’d like to tell you a story from my university days.
At university I used to go to the gym every day and either
practice my shots or play pick-up games with whoever was in the gym at the same
time. I loved it.
I was also a member of a division three team so played
competitively. The team was middle to bottom of the league. I hated it.
Why?
Well, even though I knew that my shooting percentage was
much higher than my teammates, in a game I didn’t have enough energy to perform
at a good enough level to maintain said shooting percentage.
I really wanted the coach to choose me to go onto the court,
and yet at the same time, I dreaded going onto the court and just passing the
ball to someone else or playing defence.
Why?
Because I didn’t prepare enough. I simply wasn’t fit enough
to focus on what I wanted to do. Rather I focused on conserving my energy on
offense, so that I wouldn’t embarrass myself on defence.
The simple proof of this is that when I was training to do a
half marathon I found that I had limitless energy on the basketball court and
my focus was on a completely different part of my game.
Lesson?
The results you achieve in any part of your life are not a
reflection of what you produce on the day, but the culmination of all the hard
work you put into achieving your goals before putting your basketball shoes on or go for the cheese..