Get Back to the Basics

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day represents an opportunity to get better. So let's get into it. Today I'm going to be discussing, uh, the key The key to high performance. Another one of these topics where what I'm about to share is rather trivial, is pretty simple, but is not all that easy in execution. What I want to talk about today is about getting back to the basics. Back to the basics. And remember, at No Days Off, what I talk around, I try to make universally applicable, meaning that this is just not about business. This is about our health and our relationships and all of our, all of the other components that make up our life. So when I say get back to the basics, we may have a tendency to default to our personal business, but I want you to apply these concepts all across the spectrum that makes up your world. So I want to talk about getting back to the basics. And I want to share a story I heard or read some time ago about a gentleman named Allen Stein Jr. who had some interactions with Kobe Bryant back when Kobe was in his playing days. And I'll give you the abbreviated version of the story. Allen Stein is studying Kobe, he's working with Kobe, or he wants to start working with Kobe, and Kobe tells him to show up at the gym and Alan shows up at the gym and the first thing he notices is that Kobe Bryant, the greatest player in the world at that time, is working on all of the most basic skills, uh, involved in, in basketball. Now again, this is the NBA's greatest player at that time, and he is working on his dribbling, he is working on his footwork, he is working on shots from within 5 to 10 feet of the basket. He's doing all of these very basic moves. And Allen says to him, "Kobe, why are you doing such basic drills?" And Kobe says to Allen, "Why do you think I'm the best player in the world? It's because I never ever get tired of the basics. I never get bored with the basics." So what Kobe was saying, what Kobe was doing, was working to mastery of of the fundamentals of basketball during these unseen hours. He was putting in more work and he was working to mastery of the fundamentals. See, the basics, you know, for many of us, I think we would describe them as monotonous or mundane or oftentimes boring, but these basics, they produce the foundation from which the house is built. So what I take away from that is you don't actually have to love the basics. You don't have to necessarily embrace all things that are the basics. You don't have to love doing them. You just need to love what the basics produce. I think that's the key, the huge takeaway. So in terms of maximizing your performance, I'm encouraging you today to get back to the basics. And don't necessarily— I'm not saying, you know, you've got to love all things basic. But you gotta love what the basics produce. And if you love what they produce, then you can overcome the monotony, the mundane, the boring. Doesn't mean you don't get to graduate to advanced techniques. It just means never, ever, ever leave the basics. See, complexity, as we all have heard many times, complexity is the enemy of execution. To me, that's just a call to get more basic. So the focusing question for you today, if you want to be the Kobe Bryant of your world, the focusing question: what do you believe are the basics in your role? In your business role, in your role as a father, in your role as a mother, in your role in, in any relationship, in your role as a health coach to yourself? What are the basics in your role? On a scale of 1 to 10, how well are you honoring each of these basics? If 10 is, I am honoring the basics of my role to the fullest, give yourself a 10. Now, one side note here, I would encourage you to take the number 7 out of your ranking, meaning 1 to 10, but you can't use a 7. So you got to commit to either a 6 or an 8. For many of you, you might be laughing because you default to using 7 all the time, but on a scale of 1 to 10, you can't select 7. How well are you honoring each of the basics? And the true question I want you to ask yourself today, because I'm assuming much— most of us are underperforming relative to the basics of our role, the basics of our job, the basics of our role at home, the basics of our role in health, What steps can you take today, right now, to get back to the basics? What steps can you take today to get back to the basics? The key to high performance, doing the basics really, really, really well. Thanks for joining me today. That's all we have today. The No Days Off Podcast. Remember, every single day represents an opportunity to get better. So let's get after it. Thank you.