The Michael Jordan Mindset
This week in Discipline Is Destiny, I read a lot about just becoming and being your best. I know you hear me say this often – being your best is not about perfection; it’s about excellence. It’s about doing the things you need to do as a leader to ensure you are presenting the best version of yourself in every possible moment. This doesn’t mean you win out over someone else; it doesn’t even mean you have to be better than the guy next to you. This means being better than who YOU were the day prior. Each day, you are in a competition with yourself. Can you get yourself to be a little better every day through hard work, perseverance, refining your craft, devoting more time to thinking…? The goal is to look in the mirror each night, proud of the version of yourself you see staring back at you because he is better than he was yesterday. As author Ryan Holiday describes:
“This is what you find when you study the true masters of any profession. They don’t care much about winning, about money, about fame, about most of the things that have come their way as a result of their success. Their journey has always been toward something bigger. They aren’t running a race against the competition. They are in a battle with themselves.
The battle to be the best has less to do with beating others and more to do with beating down those urges, those flaws, those selfish instincts that every human has.
Self-discipline has never been about punishment or deprivation. It is about becoming the best, the best that you are capable of becoming.”
Michael Jordan particularly made this approach to life famous. When asked who he competes against and what makes him the best in the world, Jordan didn’t mention anyone else in his reply. “I compete with myself,” he said. “Every day I demand more from myself than anyone else could ever expect. I don’t compete with other people; I compete with what I am capable of. I don’t negotiate with myself.” Now, he didn’t say this in a pompous way. He said it to portray his entire approach to life – on and off the court. His work ethic, the way he approached the game, the standards he had for himself were extraordinary. He lived to improve himself just a bit more every day, and it made him the best basketball player likely to ever live.
In his book, Ryan Holiday shares the story of world-renowned composer and pianist, Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven experienced so many challenges – with his professional work and his personal body – that there was a point in his life where he came very close to taking his own life. This near-climax of struggle and endurance occurred before he created all of the incredible works that made him someone we regard as one of the greatest musical geniuses of all time, more than a century later. His endurance created the special conditions for him to produce such brilliant works that revealed the power of music to convey the philosophy of life. His endurance made him better at his craft, and is a gift to humanity still enjoyed today.
I won’t sugarcoat it – being your best requires endurance. Life isn’t easy. But then, it was never promised to us that it would be easy. We must acknowledge that bad things are going to happen. Challenges are going to arise. And we have no idea how long we will have to endure these challenges. But if you can get yourself into the mindset of rejoicing in the challenges, these challenging times are exactly what increase your endurance. When you push yourself to continue through those moments when everything inside you is screaming for you to quit, you are actually being sharpened. You are being refined through every struggle you endure in life. And you will be stronger for it.
Greatness is so often just on the other side of a struggle. You just have to push yourself to endure – you likely only have to get a little bit further down the road. Don’t be the one who quits right before you are able to achieve something extraordinary. Everything in life worth doing requires hard work and endurance. Stick with it. Be that steady leader who shows up, gives their best every day, and is willing to endure the struggles to achieve excellence.
Written by Schuyler Williamson
Pre-Order The Steady Leader Book: Pre-Order Book
God Bless!
~ Schuyler Williamson