🏀 Did you do your best?
A lesson in leadership
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Here’s what we’re serving up this week:
🏀 Leadership 🔑
Below the Pay line
🏀 Must Add Actions 🎥
WNBA Fever - Wide Pin Touch Flare
NCAA UCONN - Shallow Exit vs Zone
🏀 Shooting Drill 📓
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LET’S DIVE IN ⬇️
Leadership 🔑
INCREDIBLE STORY ⚖️
In 1952 Jimmy Carter landed the opportunity of a lifetime- to interview with Admiral Rickover, for a chance to join the submarine nuclear program.
Admiral Rickover was not only one of the worlds brightest minds, but also at the time one of societies best leaders.
This was a 3 hour interview, Carter had prepared for days- they talked strategy, school, philosophy, tactics- the interview for Carter was going well.
Rickover then asked Carter “where were you ranked in your class at the Naval Academy?” Carter responded w/ pride “I was ranked 59th in a class of 840.”
Carter was surprised as he did not receive praise for this, but instead was asked another question:
“Did you always do your best?” Rickover asked.
Carter started to give a half hearted answer, tried to stammer until he eventually replied “no I did not always do my best.”
Rickover paused for a long time- then asked “why not?” Carter then left the room.
Carter would never forget this question. In fact, his campaign memoir from his run for governor of Georgia is titled, Why Not The Best? This question became the lodestar of Carter’s life, as it should be for ours.
Did I do my best? Am I giving my best? Am I really trying?
This is Stoicism, isn’t it? When the Stoics talk about how you don’t control much else but how you respond to the world around you, this is what they are talking about. All you control is that you do your best. “If you can manage this,” Marcus Aurelius would say, “that’s all even the gods can ask of you.”
Bonus 🚨🚨 “Discipline” HOW TO DO YOUR BEST!
The more disciplined your environment is, the less disciplined you need to be. Don't swim upstream.
You are only as mentally tough as your life demands you to be.
An easy life fashions a mind that can only handle ease.
A challenging life builds a man’s they can handle challenge.
Like a muscle that atrophies without use, Mental strength fades unless it is tested.
Solution? When life doesn’t challenge you, challenge yourself.
To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift. - Steve Prefontaine