let go of what you can’t control
Letting go of the things we can’t control was the theme of my meditation yesterday. This morning, after Roman’s first AAU game, I asked him how he felt about his game. He said he was happy with his defense and energy, which I’ll agree were both good, but that he wished he had made a couple of the threes he missed—he’s been shooting this AAU season very efficiently, so he hasn’t missed much.
“I’m going to make my threes in the next game.”
I told him that’s the wrong focus. He can’t control whether the ball goes in the hoop or not. No one can. Not a single basketball player in history has shot 100% for a career—if it were as easy as saying you weren’t going to miss any shots, then Steph Curry would never miss.
It’s going in with a high percentage when he shoots like this. This is what Roman needs to focus on, not if it goes in.
Instead of focusing on the shots going in, I told him to focus on shooting the ball with proper form each time. When he shoots the ball with the right jump, arch, and follow-through, the percentage of the ball going in increases significantly. The only thing he can control is how he shoots the ball, not whether it goes in or not.
We often focus on the outcome, so much so that we forget what we actually have control over—the inputs.
All we can do is do our best to arrive at the outcome we desire. But we have to also accept that the outcome we desire is outside of our control. If we don’t arrive at it, at least we can look back and say we did everything we could, and avoid the regret of wishing we had done more.
See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,
JC
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