Big Idea Daily | How Champions Think
 |
In Sports and in Lifeby Dr. Bob Rotella |
“Striving to be exceptional is never easy. But when people tell me that what I’m suggesting they do won’t be easy, I just say, ‘You’re right!’ Going after big ideas takes sweat. It takes persistence, patience, and a bedrock belief in yourself. Not everyone will do it. That’s why we call it being exceptional."DR. BOB ROTELLA |
BIG IDEA
Champion Thinking 101: Exceptionalism
FROM THE BOOK“The vital importance of that sort of attitude is the foremost thing I have learned about exceptionalism in my decades of work with people striving to be great.
Talent, conventionally defined, is of course part of the equation. As Bear Bryant once said, ‘When was the last time you saw a jackass win the Kentucky Derby?’ But there are many people with physical talent, just as there are many people with raw intelligence. I would venture that most people are talented in something, whether they realize it or not. What sets the merely talented people apart from exceptional people can’t be measured by vertical leap, or time for the forty-yard dash, or length off the tee, or IQ. It’s something internal. Great performers share a way of thinking, a set of attitudes and attributes like optimism, confidence, persistence, and strong will. They all want to push themselves to see how great they can become. These attributes and attitudes cause champions to work harder and smarter than other people as they prepare for competition. They help them stay focused under pressure and to produce their best performances when the stakes are the highest.”
|
Brian's Notes
That’s from the first chapter in which we meet LeBron James and his #1 asset: His mind.
Rotella tells a story about the first time he met LeBron. He knew the basics about LeBron. Six-eight. A chiseled two hundred fifty pounds with explosive speed. A proven superstar. But it wasn’t until they sat down and chatted that he REALLY got LeBron’s power.
Rotella asked him about his goals. LeBron told him: “I want to be the greatest basketball player in history.” Rotella thought: “Beautiful. This is a truly talented guy.” He says: “It was not that he had physical gifts. It was LeBron’s mind.” Specifically, it was the way he saw himself that most moved Rotella: “The vital importance of that sort of attitude is the foremost thing I have learned about exceptionalism in my decades of work with people striving to be great.”
Speaking of exceptionalism, if you flip through my copy of the book, you’ll see all the times I circled the word “exceptional.” It felt like I underlined/circled that word every page.
Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional.
And, guess what? If we want to be exceptional we have to believe we can be “an exception” to the norm and then be willing to be, as per the definition of the word, “unusual; not typical.”
Are you?
P.S. After LeBron told Rotella he wanted to be the greatest basketball player in history (!!!), Rotella asked him where he thought he stood in relation to that goal. LeBron told him he thought he was doing pretty well but that he wasn’t going to be the greatest if his teams didn’t win championships and they weren’t going to do that unless he became a better three-point shooter.
Long story short: Rotella told him to create a video montage of him nailing threes from every spot on the court. Set it to music. Watch it every night. FEEL it. Program his subconscious mind.
And, he told him to hire a shooting coach, work with him every day and make two hundred three-point shots off the dribble every day while imagining the best defender guarding him. Then make another two hundred catch-and-shoot three-pointers.“I told him I didn’t care how many shots it took to make those four hundred three-pointers, or how long it took. If he wanted to be great, he would find the time and find the energy.”
Rotella continues: “The actual number of shots I suggested was not as important, in my mind, as the idea that LeBron would set a practice goal for himself, commit to achieving it every day, and wait patiently for the results.”
Of course, this Idea has nothing to do with LeBron James and his three-pointers. It has to do with YOU. In what domain are you committed to being exceptional? Where do you think you stand in relation to that goal? And what do you think you need to do every day (!!) to have a shot at being your exceptional best?
Find the time. Find the energy. Be an exception. Be exceptional.
P.P.S. Speaking of three-pointers, how about some wisdom from Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant’s mental toughness coach, George Mumford? In The Mindful Athlete he tells us: “Every high-performing mindful athlete knows that if you want to achieve something, there’s a good chance that you can, no matter what, if—and this is a big if—you’re willing to pay the price. You not only have to focus on your intention, but you also have to be willing to get up early in the morning and do the same thing thousands and thousands of times—and then another thousand times—with intention. Which leads me to deliberate practice.
When I worked with Kobe Bryant, he was making about thirteen hundred three-pointers a day in the off-season when he was working on his three-point shot.”
P.P.P.S. LeBron went from being a 29% three-point shooter in his rookie season to a 40% beast.
Big Ideas
01: EXCEPTIONALISM
02: MESSAGE FROM GOD
03: TRAIN IT AND TRUST IT
04: ENTHUSIASM
05: CREATE YOUR OWN REALITY
“In sports or in business, if you’re not aspiring to dominate, to be the very best, you’re coasting. And you can only coast in one direction."DR. BOB ROTELLA |
Get all 700+ notesĀ and 101 masterclasses.
Master the Big Ideas from the best books in under 20 minutes a day for one lifetime payment of $99.
