As a power forward for the Boston Celtics, Basket ball legend Larry Bird, was a 12-time NBA All-Star, voted Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times among several accolades. He was once asked to film a TV commercial in which he was supposed to mimic the act of missing a basket narrowly.
But the TV crew kept filming and filming and filming. Why? Because Larry Bird just couldn’t miss. His movement, consciousness, approach to the basket, etc had become accustomed to successfully shooting a basket. He couldn’t get himself to miss. Not missing had become a habit.
According to Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Everyone is shaped by habits. There are good habits and bad habits. At the core of people of excellence are certain habits that define them. That they have cultivated over time.
According to the author, “Most of the choices we make each day may feel like they are the products of well-considered decision-making, but they are not. They are habits.
And habits have an enormous impact on our performance, and happiness. He says “There is nothing you can’t do if you get the habits right.”
But here is an example you may relate with better.
Serena Williams and her sister Venus visited Lagos recently. We received them at Ikoyi Club for a tennis coaching clinic for junior tennis players and learners.
The format was simple. Each young player would hit some balls with either sister until he or she misses and then make way for another learner.
This continued rather leisurely and with a lot of fun. Until a certain young player (he couldn’t have been more than 10 years of age) got into some kind of rally with Serena. Then the crowd started applauding the youngster’s return strokes.
Before you knew it, Serena had gotten serious. She took a few steps backward to create some court space for herself and started hitting some serious return strokes, until the young player inevitably, hit a wrong return (what is called an Unforced Error in tennis). But Serena forced the error!
My God. This was supposed to be fun, yet, Serena got serious.
Then I remembered her saying once that she hates to lose…in any game, whether in a Grand Slam final or at some coaching clinic in Ikoyi Club.
Not losing has become a habit for her!
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Martin Udogie is the Founder & Publisher "BottomLINE Newsletter".
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