I was watching a video by Eric Thomas and if you haven’t heard Eric Thomas speak or watched him before, go do it. Search for him on YouTube, he’s also got an album on Amazon Music Unlimited, go check it out, I highly recommend it. Eric was talking about Steph Curry and taking the final shot. Now I’ll try to relate the story to you the best that I can. I’m going to go for this from memory, so excuse me if I get some of the stats wrong, but the general point, you’ll get it.
It’s game three of the 2015 NBA Finals, it’s the first round of playoffs between the Golden State Warriors and the New Orleans Pelicans. Now what was happen, it was the end of the game, the Warriors were down by 20 points and they didn’t know, 20 points is a lot, and so what they did, time and time again, is they went to their MVP. They went to the person that they trusted the most to take that final shot. To take the ball, when you see these pictures and the story being told dramatically as it’s told on ESPN or Sportswriters or even ET talking about it. Here you have Steph Curry, he’s taking the ball, he grabs it, three pointer, drains, he got another shot, he’s got a guy with a seven-foot wing span in his face, what does Steph Curry do? Eyes closed drains it. Swish. The Warriors came back from a 20 point deficit to win the game. Steph Curry’s stats were astounding, 40 points, 5 rebounds, and 9 assists.
Now this sounds amazing, and it is, I mean it’s absolutely amazing. What happened was the Warriors knew, the team knew they could rally around Steph Curry because they knew he could do it. The reason they knew it was because time and time again he’s proven himself. In practice, there’s a video of him just shooting three pointers. He made 94 out of 100 three point shots with 77 of them being consecutive three pointers. Now even if you’re not a basketball fan, that is impressive. What that tells me is he has honed his skill, time and time again in practice, so when it came to the game, it wasn’t a big deal. “Down by 20, Finals? Not a problem, I do this every single day,” must have been running through Steph Curry’s mind. Even more importantly, it was also running through the mind of his teammates.
You see in a game like that, where millions of dollars are on the line, pride, these are athletes, they have a tremendous amount of just gusto, they’ve been doing this their whole lives. They give the ball, the one championships, they give the ball to Steph Curry because they have confidence in them and he has confidence in himself because he was doing the work every day.
This makes me think, in my life and in yours, who’s the MVP? Who’s the person when it comes the line, when it comes down to the most important decisions, who is your MVP? Now if you didn’t say yourself right away, that’s something to write about. What I want you to do is journal about that. Why aren’t you your own MVP? You know when it comes down to it, why aren’t you the person that is taking the ball for your life and taking that final shot? If you don’t trust yourself and you’re always turning to other people for their input, maybe that’s something that you need to change. Maybe that’s something that you need to look at and find out why.
Now what I want you to do right now is grab your journal, now again, if you didn’t say yourself, that’s fine, we want to journal about that. I do want you to list your MVPs in your five to thrive, so that’s your mind, your body, your soul, your relationships, and your business. Who are those MVPs that you have? Who are the top five people that you can turn to when the game is on the line and pass them the ball? In your mine, who’s somebody that you look to for inspiration or guidance? Somebody that might have a little bit more worldly wisdom or more business experience or actually might know something that you’re striving for and then when you’re looking for that counsel, you turn to. Who are those people? Write them down. What is it about them that allows you that confidence to hand them the rock, to hand them the ball at the end of the game?
What about your body? Who is it that you trust? Do you have a trainer? Is that somebody you look at or a nutritionist or is there somebody you follow online? Who is that person in the body that’s your MVP? Now again this can be you, but also you want to have other supporting cast members as well.
In your soul, who is the person you turn to for spiritual guidance? That could be a spiritual leader at your church, your mosque, your temple. What are you doing and what are those things that allow you to be the MVP? For example, in the idea of spirituality, you know if you’re a Christian, are you reading the Bible every day or are you reading the Quran or the Torah? Are you practicing our meditation on a daily basis? Really, the spirit is wherever it is for you, for some of you I know it’s just going outside, so are you doing that on a regular basis so when it comes crunch time when it comes down to life pouring itself on you or that feeling that we all get. I had friend describe it as wearing a warm, wool blanket. A wet blanket on you and you just kind of feel down. Who is the person that you turn to, to peel that off? If it’s not you, what are those things you could be doing consistently to make sure that when it comes crunch time, you can pull it off? That’s the key.
What about your business? Who’s your MVP? Now if you thinking your business, “Ah easy, MVP is me.” Now you’re wrong because you don’t own a business, you own a job. When I do coaching, so I do business lifestyle coaching, I work with business owners and entrepreneurs who are their way. What I talk to them about is, if you have a business, yeah you want MVPs, you want them all to be people you can turn to, so you can leave and work on the higher level strategy. If you’re not doing that yet, what are those things you can do every day and practice to get there? Maybe it’s training your staff. Maybe it’s every day having to stand up meetings, whatever it is for you, there are 100 things I can think of right now, but what I want you to do is grab your journal, write out your five to thrive.
Do this. Don’t leave the space of making a decision and coming up with insight, without taking immediate action. Always take action, action first. Write down your five to thrive, write down your mind, your body, your soul, your relationships, and your business and write those five people down each category. Now, what makes them the person you turn to? Then what I want you to do is, what can you do on a consistent daily basis, some people call it key stone habits or just daily habits that you can do that will actually make you the MVP so when things happen, when stuff goes down, you’re able to be the Steph Curry in your own life. That’s how you become the Author of Your Own Story.
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