Defying Odds: The Power of Kobe's Mindset

Every child, every person has the ability to put one foot in front of the other, so if you say, "Okay, I'm going to climb Mount Everest at the bottom of the mountain," and you look up and go, I won't do it. I'm going to climb Mount Everest just fine, but if you break it down into sections and you're just one foot in front of the other, step by step, the next thing you know you're at the top of the mountain, it's just a matter of what's important you and what's important to you for some reason I didn't feel good about myself if I wasn't doing everything I could to be the best version of myself if I felt like I was leaving something on the table it would eat me up I couldn't look at myself in the mirror.

Well, the mom mentality simply means trying to be the best version of yourself. That's what

mindset

means. It means that every day you know that you are trying to be better and it is a constant search. It's an Infinity Quest, so I started at the age of two when I started playing the game and so on. I always ask questions. I always try to improve every day. Learn more. You know, a lot of things I learned just by being around. the game well, so at the age of six he was already strategizing compared to other six year olds.

I was just constantly looking for things to learn from and, very observant, everything I learned from the game of basketball I have brought to life. You know, basketball helped me be a better person, a better friend, because there are life lessons that are within the game, like communication, altruism, attention to detail, empathy and compassion, like all those things that are in the game and as an athlete if we are aware of those things that help us be better human beings if your job is to try to be the best basketball player you can do that you have to practice you have to train well you want to train as much as we can as often as possible you can so if you get up at 10 in the morning you train at 12 you train for 2 hours 12 to 2. you have to let your body recover so you eat recover whatever you train train again start training again at six train from six to eight well and now you go home you shower you have dinner you go to bed you wake up you do it again well those are two sessions right now imagine that you wake up at three you train at four you you go from four to six come home breakfast relax now you do it again from nine to eleven, sure, relax and suddenly you go back to doing it from two to four and now you do it again, you know, from seven to nine, look how much more training I've done done just starting with four okay so now do that and as the years go by the separation that you have with your competitors and your peers grows more and more and more and more and more and more and by year five or six it doesn't matter. what kind of work they do in the summer, they'll never catch up because they're five years behind, so it makes sense to get up and start the day early because you can get more work done if I start earlier.

I train longer hours and I know the other guys aren't doing it because I know what their right training program is so I know that if I do this consistently over time the gap will widen and it will widen why and why and they they will not. to be able to bring that back, so to me it was just common sense. I'm thinking how can I get an advantage, oh, start earlier, yeah, let's do it, it's just a matter of what's important to you and what's important to you for whatever reason. I didn't feel good about myself if I didn't do everything I could to be the best version of myself.

If I felt like I was leaving something on the table, it would eat me up. I couldn't look at myself in the future. Look well, so the reason I can retire now and be completely comfortable about it is because I know that I have done everything I can to be the best basketball player I could be and therefore you can't leave any stone unturned. . Short Change yourself as if you don't, you're not fooling anyone but yourself. I mean, you're tired, you're literally so far from the line, why wouldn't you make that extra effort to hit the line correctly, so if I let them get away? with that right, suddenly he starts cheating, something here, he doesn't give his best here, he doesn't give his best here and as the years go by, he's not going to reach his full potential because he has been taking these little shortcuts that just add up add up add up add up and you can't let that happen our job as teachers as mentors as inspirers it's our responsibility to hold them accountable for those things, whatever you're doing in that moment is what you're doing in the moment. that moment you know that's where obsession is having attention to the detail of the action you're doing at the time you're doing it and if you can have that kind of focus you can't help but have a certain level of obsession or attention to detail being unwavering. really like you're always chasing it always chasing it always chasing it and if a challenge comes up oh well I want to see how I perform on it so go after it go after it it's fun it's like you have the opportunity to compete against opponents and you have the opportunity to see where you compare to them is like I want to see if maybe I'm not good enough today if that's okay, I will be good enough the next time I see you, although you know it, and you will have the opportunity to always measuring yourself and, um, it's fun to do, so I guess that's where the relentlessness comes from, any time it happens, good, bad or indifferent, I can use them. moments to push me forward, use them as fuel to help me be a better player, well, losing to the Celtics in the 2008 finals, I mean, it was tough, it was brutal at night in the hotel room after we lost, I just thought to myself that maybe I'll never win another championship like I could have so it's really hard to come back here, maybe it's not in the cards to win another one, so I go through that night angry and then the next morning I wake up and I start.

Thinking no, I have to fix this, so where did it go wrong? Do you know why we lost? Well, we weren't tough enough. Okay, we weren't tough enough. The responsibility to make the team tough is mine, so now I have to do it. Start figuring out how I'm going to lead this team differently to make sure that when we get to the finals next time we're tough and ready for this challenge and, you know, that's how you bounce back from those moments. It was difficult, man, because the Achilles injury is the worst injury for an athlete, it's like the worst, it's like the kiss of death and when I tore my Achilles tendon, I knew what happened, I knew the severity of the injury. and I didn't know it.

If I was going to come back from this like this, it's like my career could end right now, but what I did is, you know, I went home and I was very angry and, um, I was angry, I was angry, I was angry, I worked . It was very difficult for us to get to the playoffs and have a chance to win another championship and then this happened so I felt a lot of anger and then out of anger I got sad and then you started feeling bad for yourself and then you say this okay, okay, I'm done being a baby, okay, what am I going to do now?

Because I can't sit here and give up. That's not an option. So what is a process? You look at the process. What I am going to do? Can I control the surgery or do the surgery? Get out of surgery recover from your physical therapy. Well, physical therapy, piece by piece, piece by piece, start running back to the court, so I broke things down into sections and said, "Okay, I'm going." I'll focus on resting right now. This is all. I'm going to focus on wiggling your toes and then walking and then looking at every challenge every step and that's how you can be resilient and come back from these things.

Every child, every person has the ability to put one foot in front of the other, so if you say, "Okay, I'm going to climb Mount Everest," at the bottom of the mountain you look up and go. I'm not going to climb Mount Everest very well, but if you divide it into sections and you're just one foot in front of the other, step by step, the next thing you know, you're at the top of the mountain. I came back from the Achilles tendon and I was fine and then the next year I fractured my knee, it's like here we go again, we come back from that next year, rip my shoulder, here we go again, but if I looked at those things in Its entirety would be depressing, but if Look at it just as the facts this is this happened I can't do anything about it it happened now what are you going to do step by step as time goes by?

I'm sitting there, I'm 78 years old and I'm going to be wondering if I could have come back from this injury I don't want to wonder I want to know I want to see if the critics are out there saying it's over, it's never coming back maybe you're right maybe it's not, but let's find out. I think the biggest fear we face is ourselves. Actually, you know, I think it's nothing external or superficial. I think the biggest fear you face is yourself, maybe because you know that we all have dreams. and sometimes it's really scary to accept the dream that you have and it's even scarier to say Okay, I want it to be scary because you're afraid that if you put your heart and soul into it and you fail, how are you going to feel about it?

You're right, so being Brave means going out and fighting no matter what you do, not for anyone else, but for yourself, dance beautifully in the box that you feel comfortable dancing in, so, as if everyone's box was different, my box was going to be. Extremely ambitious within the sport of basketball. Your box is different from mine. Each child here has their own box, but that doesn't mean your box isn't as beautiful as mine. Each has its own. It's your job to try to perfect it. and make it as beautiful a canvas as you can and if you've done that, then you've lived a successful life, you've lived with the Mamba mentality, so that doesn't mean you have to go out here and do all this. crazy things I'll have to be like this person or that person no, what are you comfortable with being what is that, what is it that you want to do with your life and once you have it, do you try to live it as best as possible?

Your ability, my vision of what my goal is, changes drastically as I grew up, it's like when I was a kid, I said, I want to be the best ever, and now you go through your life and everything you do is trying to be the best, to be. the best. be the best as you grow up you start to understand that those things are very superficial and everyone has a different opinion about it no matter what you do. I can win 20 championships, there is always an opinion about who is the best, everyone has different opinions and then I began to understand that maybe that is not the important thing, maybe the important thing is to know how we grow as a team, how I help my teammates to to be better, that was the first change for me and then as I grew up.

Still, it became more about how you inspire others to find themselves, that's the ultimate championship, so how do you use your passion and use it to inspire someone else to create their passion and then how can they pass it on to the next person? it's a real success