This famous saying dates back to the seventeenth century, but the thought that it conveys is as relevant today as it was when it was first written. No person can achieve anything meaningful in life without the contributions of other people. To succeed at reaching your goals, therefore, you must learn to appreciate the people God has placed in your life.
Basketball is an obvious example, because a player who gets loose for a shot beneath the basket is in a far better position than the player who is double-teamed at mid-court, and the player who is positioned for a rebound following a missed free throw is in a far better position than the player who is ten feet from the basket when the shot is missed.
If you were standing on a diving board, preparing to jump into the pool below, you would at least glance at the pool to make sure it was filled with water before making your dive. But it’s amazing how many people attempt great feats in life without investigating the risks and rewards associated with those ventures, and that is why so many people fail.
Have you ever noticed what really frightens you? Is there anything that really makes you stop in your tracks. shutting you down mentally? Most people have numerous fears, both identified and unidentified. It’s a miracle that we function at all sometimes.
A “playmaker” in basketball is a player who is willing to take responsibility for the game and aggressively do all in his power to alter the outcome of the game. Playmakers are highly paid athletes who just don’t accept the other team’s defense or his own team’s failure to pull ahead as a reason to back off but rather they look at them as invitations to jump over or adeptly move around the court to achieve their goal which is to win. They don’t wait for someone else to do something. They are resolute and are willing to do whatever it takes.
Confidence is an essential trait of a good rebounder, whether on the basketball court or in life. But determination is the core attribute that breeds confidence and the fundamental characteristic that produces results. For this reason, determination is the quality you need most in order to bounce back from your past failures or from the missteps that have taken you further from your goals.
All my life, I have been struck by the countless similarities between sports and life. Both sports and life require know-how, both demand talent and skill, and both can lead to glorious and fulfilling victories. However, sports and life are marked with obstacles and setbacks too, with mistakes and with crushing defeats. They are each marked with opposition, competition, and failure. And they offer us challenges, as well as opportunities to correct our mistakes and to rise above our failures. In athletic competition, there is always the next game or the next season. In a basketball game, there is always the chance to rebound a missed shot. And in life, we must create the same opportunities to turn failures into successes. We must keep “pounding the boards.”
