Families lost 9 people last week who were sisters, dads, and coaches. The sports world lost an icon. Nearly every celebrity posted a tribute or story about Kobe Bryant. Shaquille O'Neal told a story that illustrated his mentality, coined the Mamba Mentality after his nickname the Black Mamba. You can read the story and watch the video here. Shaq imitates a time during a pre-game shoot around where the Lakers coach was talking to the team about the strategy for the game. Kobe was a rookie and not yet a starter. He is off to the side practicing basketball moves, including fake shots, fade away shots, fake passes, etc. while listening. He is going nearly full speed without even a basketball. He was playing basketball against air with no basketball during low key shoot around time. The veterans on the team hadn't seen anyone do that before. He was utilizing every moment he could to get better.
Most of us could use a few more moments each day to get better. Bar takers have 3 weeks left. 5 or 10 MBE questions at the end of the day or 10-15 minutes each night on a sub-topic will snowball over 3 weeks. 1 new habit for law students throughout a 14-16 week semester can dramatically improve grades. 1 article or 1 hour of research each day can improve our (ASPers) knowledge to help students succeed. Many people believe success is a grand event. While success appears during an event, success is built on the foundation of individual moments of improvement. Success is built on extra practice against the air. High performance and success comes from the little extra we do after we are tired and everyone else has finished for the day. Set a goal to try to do a little more tomorrow than you did today. Small habits in small moments on the little things make the biggest impact later on.
(Steven Foster)
