Michael Jordan was said to have woken up at 6 AM everyday during his Junior Year in High School because he was cut from the team the previous year due to being only 5’11”. So his Coach said if he came in and practiced with his Coach at 6 AM everyday for a year then he would consider bringing Michael on the team.
Kobe Bryant was said to have practice for 7 hours to get shots up before his Olympic Team practice. He did called up his trainer to get some conditioning in, then his trainer went back to his hotel to sleep before their 11 AM practice. Immediately after, Kobe started getting shots up. When his trainer came back, he asked Kobe “When did you finish?”
Kobe goes “Finish what?”
Trainer – “Shooting?”
Kobe – “Oh just now. I wanted to make 800 shots. So yeah.” Wow, when I first read that story I was in awe. That just shows point black why Kobe is one of the greatest players in the world. The greatest player in the world (at a period in his career) getting up 800 shots to get better? If Kobe is going that hard to get better what do you think we have to do? Right, we have to go harder. Greatness does not come easy. You must pour heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears into what you love most. Without that type of hardwork and dedication you will won’t complete a fraction of you could achieve. Believe that.
Check out the article with this story: http://www.businessinsider.com/kobe-bryant-woke-up-at-4-am-to-practice-before-olympics-2013-3
Chris Paul wakes up at 4:30 AM to train since as he says “it shows I have discipline. Somedays I don’t want to get out of bed but I tell myself, this is what I love to do and I must get better. So lets roll.”
I myself woke up at 5 AM almost every day while in Mongolia to run and then do my ballhandling, and shooting drills right after. In addition to my run in the morning I would fill myself with gratitude and visualize me being one of the best overseas professional Basketball point guards to have ever played the game. I worked out for 6-8 hours everyday to perfect my craft, get better, stronger, faster and smarter.
To become great you must learn from the greats and apply what they did into your life. As they say, “Greatness comes form within”. You have to be willing to get uncomfortable to become great.
It all starts with forming great habits. And what I mean by habits is: waking up at 5-6 AM to go workout, eating 3-4 healthy meals a day, drinking lots of water, studying the game, doing your ball handling drills, form shooting, game-speed shooting drills, doing your suicides or 17s to say in shape, timing yourself so you beat your time on the next set, doing your agility workouts, filming and studying your technique so you can improve it the next time.
As I mentioned in my previous post, it takes 67 days to form a new Habit. Millions of people make New Years resolutions but 99% of people never follow through with their resolutions because after the 1st month they go back to either smoking, binge eating, sleeping late, thinking negative, etc. I challenge you to form one, two or three new habits in the next 67 days. For me, it began with waking up at 5 AM, eating super healthy foods, and working on my game every day. In fact, after 21 days these 3 things became a habit for me and ever since then I’ve been doing them every single day.
What habit or habits are you willing to commit to making permanent in the next 67 days? Let me know in the comment section below. I’d love to hear your goals, thoughts and help you if you have any questions about how to start.
See you on the next post!