That’s from the first chapter in which we meet LeBron James and his #1 asset: His mind.
Rotella tells a story about the first time he met LeBron. He knew the basics about LeBron. Six-eight. A chiseled two hundred fifty pounds with explosive speed. A proven superstar. But it wasn’t until they sat down and chatted that he REALLY got LeBron’s power.
Rotella asked him about his goals. LeBron told him: “I want to be the greatest basketball player in history.” Rotella thought: “Beautiful. This is a truly talented guy.” He says: “It was not that he had physical gifts. It was LeBron’s mind.” Specifically, it was the way he saw himself that most moved Rotella: “The vital importance of that sort of attitude is the foremost thing I have learned about exceptionalism in my decades of work with people striving to be great.”
Speaking of exceptionalism, if you flip through my copy of the book, you’ll see all the times I circled the word “exceptional.” It felt like I underlined/circled that word every page.
Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional. Exceptional.
And, guess what? If we want to be exceptional we have to believe we can be “an exception” to the norm and then be willing to be, as per the definition of the word, “unusual; not typical.”
Are you?
P.S. After LeBron told Rotella he wanted to be the greatest basketball player in history (!!!), Rotella asked him where he thought he stood in relation to that goal. LeBron told him he thought he was doing pretty well but that he wasn’t going to be the greatest if his teams didn’t win championships and they weren’t going to do that unless he became a better three-point shooter.
Long story short: Rotella told him to create a video montage of him nailing threes from every spot on the court. Set it to music. Watch it every night. FEEL it. Program his subconscious mind.
And, he told him to hire a shooting coach, work with him every day and make two hundred three-point shots off the dribble every day while imagining the best defender guarding him. Then make another two hundred catch-and-shoot three-pointers. “I told him I didn’t care how many shots it took to make those four hundred three-pointers, or how long it took. If he wanted to be great, he would find the time and find the energy.”
Rotella continues: “The actual number of shots I suggested was not as important, in my mind, as the idea that LeBron would set a practice goal for himself, commit to achieving it every day, and wait patiently for the results.”
Of course, this Idea has nothing to do with LeBron James and his three-pointers. It has to do with YOU. In what domain are you committed to being exceptional? Where do you think you stand in relation to that goal? And what do you think you need to do every day (!!) to have a shot at being your exceptional best?
Find the time. Find the energy. Be an exception. Be exceptional.
P.P.S. Speaking of three-pointers, how about some wisdom from Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant’s mental toughness coach, George Mumford? In The Mindful Athlete he tells us: “Every high-performing mindful athlete knows that if you want to achieve something, there’s a good chance that you can, no matter what, if—and this is a big if—you’re willing to pay the price. You not only have to focus on your intention, but you also have to be willing to get up early in the morning and do the same thing thousands and thousands of times—and then another thousand times—with intention. Which leads me to deliberate practice. …
When I worked with Kobe Bryant, he was making about thirteen hundred three-pointers a day in the off-season when he was working on his three-point shot.”
P.P.P.S. LeBron went from being a 29% three-point shooter in his rookie season to a 40% beast.