Lesson: Control What You Can Control
One lesson that we can all agree that we either learned or re-learned while playing is that “you can only control what you can control” We face a lot of new situations and adversity while playing and it is so easy to find ourselves trying to control all these situations that are beyond our control, no matter how hard we try or how long we stay up at night obsessing about it before sleep. Officiating, the level of performance from your opponents, competition conditions, injuries, workouts that are too heavy or not enough, practices that run too long or too short, and all the other little things that you wish you could alternate to make your experience better. It’s so easy to let these little things pile up and make the experience a stressful one.
Things Beyond Our Control:
Athletic Genes: You are the product of your parents and the genes they have passed on to you. If you are gifted with great height that’s fantastic, height is a premium in the game of basketball and people will actually seek you out to help you become a great basketball player! If you weren’t that’s okay, but again, it means you are going to have to make up for it. The same thing can be said for speed and general athleticism. We all have a degree of these but if your goal is to play on the highest stage possible, then it just makes it easier, NOT easy, but easier, to get there. Height you may not be able to do anything about. Speed you have some, if limited however, control over. Your genes can give you a head start in the game of basketball or they can be a hurdle to overcome.
Your Circumstance: Your circumstance refers to where you grow up, what kind of access you have to great development opportunities, your income level to afford or create better opportunities for yourself and what your role in your family is like. For some the table may be set, meaning you may have the perfect circumstance to allow you to reach your potential. You may come from a place in the world that is recognized as a basketball “hotbed” and in so, you may have access to great coaches, highly developed players, opportunities for positive exposure of your accomplishments and learning opportunities in the form of camps, trainers and clinics that are widely and easily available. On the other hand, you may live in a remote area where basketball is not played or practiced widely and so the same infrastructure for the game doesn’t exist and so you have to work a lot harder to put yourself in those situations. For many, they believe if they just had the right circumstances everything would be different for them.
Random Circumstances: Lastly, we can all be affected by random circumstances. These are those instances that come up that either help or divert us to or from our goals randomly. For instance, you may make a random connection with someone who has great experience and great connections to get you the kind of opportunities you want or need to develop your potential. On the other hand, you may have things happen in your life that become serious hurdles to you reaching your potential. You may suffer an injury that take a long time to recover from, or you may have a family that finds themselves in a situation where you have to help pay the rent or pay for groceries. Random circumstances can help or divert us from becoming successful.
Whether your situation is positive or negative with regards to each of these factors, the message remains, these will not make or break you from becoming successful. They may help or they may stand in your way but the direction is simple, when it comes to being successful we must put our energy into what we DO have control over. When you become successful it will be because of what you did, not what you had, or had happen to you.
What exactly can you control in sports?
1. ATTITUDE – Everything starts and ends with attitude and if you get it right, all else will fall in line with it. A positive, winning attitude helps you succeed and impact those around you. Attitude includes: your mindset towards competition, your perspective towards adversity, the content of your thoughts, your approach to training and an arduous season, your response to mistakes and your response to bad officiating. Your attitude is everything when it comes to competing.
2. EFFORT – How hard you work is up to you and no one else. If you give up that control, you are giving away one of the main things that sets you apart from the rest. Your effort must also be smart and reflected in your work rate in practice and games. Effort includes: your training intensity, your competition intensity and your attention to technique refinement. Hard work often separates the good from the great.
3. FOCUS – Focus is relaxed concentration; it becomes especially important in games where outside distractions can keep you from performing at your best. Your focus must be on the here and now, on each play, one at a time. The key is seeing and doing. If you’re focusing on anything other than reading the court and doing what needs to be done, the moment will pass you by.
Your focus is what you choose to pay attention to. If you can focus on the positive and immerse yourself in the moment, you will give yourself a big advantage over your competition. Focusing on the controllables will help you keep your head in the game, emotions in check and performing at your peak.
4. FITNESS – The work you put into your physical conditioning will directly affect your ability to play while making a positive impact for your team. Be committed to the one thing you can control – your fitness. Be smart and be aware that your decisions and actions on and off the field affect the team.
5. PREPARATION – The will to win is overrated in athletics, because everyone wants to win. It’s the will to prepare to win that makes the difference. A side benefit of proper preparation is that it also helps you feel more confident.
Your preparation includes: your level of training, your diet, your attention to mental skills, your game plan or competitive strategy, your technique, your competition warm-up, your pre-game routine, etc. When you prepare meticulously, you feel more confident and in control.
6. REST AND NUTRITION – Your performance is directly impacted by your food and hydration choices as well as the amount of rest and seep you get. Some research on your part will help you make better choices in this area.
7. COACHABILITY – This has to do with your ability to receive, accept, and apply the coaching points from your coach. The smartest players not only learn from the coach, but also from their teammates.
8. EMOTIONS – You must act your way into Feeling and not feeling a certain way before you act. You can act yourself into a new way of thinking more easily than you can think yourself into a new way of acting.
9. COMMUNICATION – Positive, assertive, and clear communication is not only something you can control, hut will also give you and your team an edge.
10. BODY LANGUAGE – While this is a part of communication, it is actually the most visible and easiest thing you can change. If you work out with a confident body language and remain that way under pressure situations, it will send a clear and powerful message to your teammates, your coach, and your opponents.
Don't worry about the things you can't control. Use the Fight ON! Mentality to control the things you can control.
Things Beyond Our Control:
Athletic Genes: You are the product of your parents and the genes they have passed on to you. If you are gifted with great height that’s fantastic, height is a premium in the game of basketball and people will actually seek you out to help you become a great basketball player! If you weren’t that’s okay, but again, it means you are going to have to make up for it. The same thing can be said for speed and general athleticism. We all have a degree of these but if your goal is to play on the highest stage possible, then it just makes it easier, NOT easy, but easier, to get there. Height you may not be able to do anything about. Speed you have some, if limited however, control over. Your genes can give you a head start in the game of basketball or they can be a hurdle to overcome.
Your Circumstance: Your circumstance refers to where you grow up, what kind of access you have to great development opportunities, your income level to afford or create better opportunities for yourself and what your role in your family is like. For some the table may be set, meaning you may have the perfect circumstance to allow you to reach your potential. You may come from a place in the world that is recognized as a basketball “hotbed” and in so, you may have access to great coaches, highly developed players, opportunities for positive exposure of your accomplishments and learning opportunities in the form of camps, trainers and clinics that are widely and easily available. On the other hand, you may live in a remote area where basketball is not played or practiced widely and so the same infrastructure for the game doesn’t exist and so you have to work a lot harder to put yourself in those situations. For many, they believe if they just had the right circumstances everything would be different for them.
Random Circumstances: Lastly, we can all be affected by random circumstances. These are those instances that come up that either help or divert us to or from our goals randomly. For instance, you may make a random connection with someone who has great experience and great connections to get you the kind of opportunities you want or need to develop your potential. On the other hand, you may have things happen in your life that become serious hurdles to you reaching your potential. You may suffer an injury that take a long time to recover from, or you may have a family that finds themselves in a situation where you have to help pay the rent or pay for groceries. Random circumstances can help or divert us from becoming successful.
Whether your situation is positive or negative with regards to each of these factors, the message remains, these will not make or break you from becoming successful. They may help or they may stand in your way but the direction is simple, when it comes to being successful we must put our energy into what we DO have control over. When you become successful it will be because of what you did, not what you had, or had happen to you.
What exactly can you control in sports?
1. ATTITUDE – Everything starts and ends with attitude and if you get it right, all else will fall in line with it. A positive, winning attitude helps you succeed and impact those around you. Attitude includes: your mindset towards competition, your perspective towards adversity, the content of your thoughts, your approach to training and an arduous season, your response to mistakes and your response to bad officiating. Your attitude is everything when it comes to competing.
2. EFFORT – How hard you work is up to you and no one else. If you give up that control, you are giving away one of the main things that sets you apart from the rest. Your effort must also be smart and reflected in your work rate in practice and games. Effort includes: your training intensity, your competition intensity and your attention to technique refinement. Hard work often separates the good from the great.
3. FOCUS – Focus is relaxed concentration; it becomes especially important in games where outside distractions can keep you from performing at your best. Your focus must be on the here and now, on each play, one at a time. The key is seeing and doing. If you’re focusing on anything other than reading the court and doing what needs to be done, the moment will pass you by.
Your focus is what you choose to pay attention to. If you can focus on the positive and immerse yourself in the moment, you will give yourself a big advantage over your competition. Focusing on the controllables will help you keep your head in the game, emotions in check and performing at your peak.
4. FITNESS – The work you put into your physical conditioning will directly affect your ability to play while making a positive impact for your team. Be committed to the one thing you can control – your fitness. Be smart and be aware that your decisions and actions on and off the field affect the team.
5. PREPARATION – The will to win is overrated in athletics, because everyone wants to win. It’s the will to prepare to win that makes the difference. A side benefit of proper preparation is that it also helps you feel more confident.
Your preparation includes: your level of training, your diet, your attention to mental skills, your game plan or competitive strategy, your technique, your competition warm-up, your pre-game routine, etc. When you prepare meticulously, you feel more confident and in control.
6. REST AND NUTRITION – Your performance is directly impacted by your food and hydration choices as well as the amount of rest and seep you get. Some research on your part will help you make better choices in this area.
7. COACHABILITY – This has to do with your ability to receive, accept, and apply the coaching points from your coach. The smartest players not only learn from the coach, but also from their teammates.
8. EMOTIONS – You must act your way into Feeling and not feeling a certain way before you act. You can act yourself into a new way of thinking more easily than you can think yourself into a new way of acting.
9. COMMUNICATION – Positive, assertive, and clear communication is not only something you can control, hut will also give you and your team an edge.
10. BODY LANGUAGE – While this is a part of communication, it is actually the most visible and easiest thing you can change. If you work out with a confident body language and remain that way under pressure situations, it will send a clear and powerful message to your teammates, your coach, and your opponents.
Don't worry about the things you can't control. Use the Fight ON! Mentality to control the things you can control.