Here’s What Really Motivates Me

About 3 or 4 times a week around 5:30 p.m. my friends and I gather for a rather intense basketball game. It’s something I really look forward to on the days we play. For many reasons really: its fun, it burns calories (I’m a chocolate addict so that really helps!), and it builds the bond with my friends just to name a few. I have become a darn good basketball player I think, always scoring a majority of the points and making smart efficient passes. I have my bad games, but overall I usually get picked first or second to be on peoples teams. But it didn’t always use to be like this…

Today I just wanted to tell you a little story that may help you in your life and in your business. For a long time I was an average to a below average basketball player, always looking to pass rather than shoot. I knew I had the talent to score, and I considered myself a very good shooter but I just didn’t have the confidence and really the motivation to be a “scorer” rather than a passer.

So lets go back about 2 years. I was playing basketball in a YMCA league game and I was having a really bad game. I had missed all of my shots (most of them easy lay-ups’) and was making some really dreadful passing decisions. Overall, I was having a terrible game. But somehow my team managed to stay within 4 or 5 points with just a few minutes left in the game.

It was becoming crunch time in the game, the spot in the game where every shot had to be a good one and every pass had to be precise. So lets fast forward to about 1 minute left in the game with my team down 2 points. The other team had just missed a shot so I started racing down the court. I’m a pretty fast guy so I got down there before anyone else, and wouldn’t you know it here comes a pass right to me. I had a perfect open lay up that would have tied the game.

You guessed it, I missed an easy lay up. A lay up! The easiest shot in basketball! Immediately after I missed that shot I heard the teammate who had passed me the ball mutter to himself… “Why do I keep passing to you!” As if he had never missed a shot before, as if he was the greatest basketball player to ever play the game, as if I wasn’t worthy of receiving passes from him.

That was it for me. A real turning point.

My team went on to lose the game and finish the season in last place. But those words really got me going. I mean, I was angry. Really angry. So what did I do? I got sick and tired of being average. I dedicated myself to being a better player. I went about a 2 month stretch where I would play basketball 3 times a day 3 or 4 days a week. For example, on a Monday I would play at 6 a.m. with the before work crowd, then at 12 noon I would play with the lunch time crowd, and then at 7:30 p.m. I would play with the high school kids. I didn’t care how old they were, I was just trying to play and get better. I had played so much basketball that I had dropped 14 pounds and got into great shape, not to mention I trashed that mentality of being a passer first and not a shooter and the best part was I had really improved my game.

To make a long story short, my basketball game improved dramatically, I dedicated myself to being aggressive, and I went on to the next season of YMCA league play to become the leagues top scorer, my team won the championship out of 14 teams, and I was the league MVP.

I still to this day think of the comment my teammate made and it still makes me angry and motivates me. I mean, I don’t blame the guy for saying it… I was terrible that game. In fact I should really thank him for helping me become such an improved player.

The moral of the story is, think of something that has happened in your life, something that made you mad, didn’t work out in your favor, anything really, and turn it into a positive. Use it as a motivational tool. Maybe your family or friends don’t/didnt support you in your hopes and dreams. I have experienced that and it really hurts, but boy oh boy does that motivate me to prove everyone wrong. All the naysayers who still think I should just go to college and get a “regular job.” Anyway, I digress… that one comment to this very day motivates me to become better, not just at sports, but in anything I do.

You can apply this technique to your business, your golf game, dancing lessons, piano, work, whatever you are struggling with. In the end the more motivated you are to succeed, the better you will do. Good luck.