Are Your Basketball Goals Too Unrealistic?

So I got another question from Ryan, and this is actually, I really want to talk about this. This is a great question that I got. And I think that this is another thing that can really help out a lot of guys. So, you know, he asked me, he said he's a question, you know, what do you think the difference is between being real to yourself and underachieving? So, for example, I want to play in college. I want to play college basketball, but I feel like I'm not good enough to play. So I'm trying to get into coaching after high school. Am I being real to myself or am I underachieving? And this is a great question, and it's an honest question, too, which I appreciate. So, you know, you have. I'll approach them at a couple different angles. The first thing off the bat is that you need to have goals that motivate you. Okay? You have to find a balance. But, you know, the difference is you need to find a balance between extremely high goals and actual reality. Okay? I think a very dangerous idea that is being sold to, to players these days, young players especially, is that if you just work as hard as possible, you'll achieve whatever you want. That's just not how it works. It's not how life works, not how anything works. Okay? Again, we talked about how just because you work hard doesn't mean you're going to see the same results as somebody else. This is not how it works. So the, you know, the issue is not having goals that are big or daunting or not maybe not possible. Like, maybe, maybe won't happen. The issue is when you put all your eggs into that basket and into something that probably is not going to happen. Okay? Because then at the end of the day, it's like, what are you left with if that doesn't happen for you? So for most players, it's just kind of a backwards view on things. And, you know, for example, you know, I get DMs multiple times a day from players who will just straight up ask me how they can make the NBA. That's their question. It isn't coach, like, I need to become a better shooter. What do I do? I need to become a better ball. I get those questions too, obviously, but I get questions every day from guys who are just like, coach, what do I need to do to make the NBA? First of all, I have never seen you play. I don't know. I don't know you. Like, I haven't. I don't know. I don't even know if you're good. So I can't answer that question for you. I can give you a baseline response, which I always do. You know, people do this, do this, do this at an elite level. But that doesn't really help you because at the end of the day, like we talked about it, top 0.00001% of basketball players in the NBA. That, that is a number. Now obviously there's, there's more pro spots in terms of like, you know, guys who play in the G League or play in Europe or Asia or anywhere that there's, that there's basketball, there's opportunities for you. But even still, I mean, probably, like if you combine all the professional spots in the world, it's probably still 0.000008% of basketball players how can play somewhere, right? Maybe, maybe, maybe. Maybe only four zeros and then a point one this time. But like still a very minuscule amount of people. You know, like I said, I mean, that's just a loaded question because like I said, there's just not, like if I have some new play, then I can't tell you that. And here's the thing, like, if you can do everything right and you can still be the 451st best player where you're elite, like you are better than, you're better at basketball than most people are at anything that they will ever do, right? And you still might be the first guy out of the NBA. That can just be how it is. So to me, if a player asks how do I make the NBA? A better question they should be asking is, how can I maximize my skills and become the best player I can possibly be? That's what you need to ask yourself. And that, that's a much better question to me. It's like, don't worry about coach. What do you do to go to the NBA, right? You guys haven't even played high school basketball. A lot of you guys haven't even excelled at high school basketball, right? A lot of you guys haven't. I'll get guys who will ask me how to make it to the NBA and they haven't played in college. It's like, how do you expect to go to the NBA when you haven't played college basketball? Like you're just going to go to the NBA. Like, that's, that's just not how it works, right? I'm not saying you have to play college basketball to be a pro. I mean, there's guys who, who, you know, borderline dater, didn't like whatever But I think that experience in itself to me is like, dude, you got to get on a college roster if you want to do that. Like, go. Go get some experience, right? You know, I'll guy be like, oh, you know, I haven't. I haven't played any organized basketball, but I want to make it to the NBA. Well, you have to ask yourself, like, how realistic is that right now? Am I actually where I need to be? No, you're probably not. So that's a better question to ask yourself. Shift your focus. And this is what I really want to get to shift your focus onto things you control. Okay? Listen, you can, again, you can do everything right, and you can still be the 451st, 452nd best player, okay? So worrying about being top 450 in the world, you don't control that. All you control is the work you put in, okay? All you control is your commitment to get in the gym and work hard every day. And guess what? If you do those things correctly, you work at a high level, you're committed to it. Maybe you get to the NBA, maybe you do, but maybe you don't, okay? But you have to be. Here's what you need to do. You need to understand that if you put in all the work that you can, you work as hard as you possibly can, you still don't make it. At least, you know. At least you can say, you know what? I did everything I could do. I worked hard for this. And again, like I said, hard work always pays off. There's always a silver lining. Even if you don't get what you want initially, you'll know, okay? But it all starts with focus on what you control. You control how you work, you control. If you work smart, you control. If you're consistent, you control those things. You don't control who's better than you. You don't, okay? Focus on your own game. And that is how you're going to be able to maximize your skills and actually get to where you want to get to. So, you know, to me, it's like this is a whole big thing. Stop comparing yourself to other players. Stop worrying about who's getting posted on ball's life for overtime. That literally means nothing. Don't even worry about that at all. All that matters is what you're doing. Only thing you should care about is what you're doing. Tunnel vision. What you have to have, you've got to have tunnel vision, okay? So you know, when it comes to having realistic goals again, I want to find a balance, though. Okay? So you have to have goals that. That still motivate you and push you to work at it. But at the end of the day, your ultimate goal is becoming the best player you can possibly be. The ultimate goal is maximizing your skills, because that's the only way to put yourself in a position down the line to actually be the best player you can possibly be. So on the other. On the other end of the spectrum, though, how do you know if you're underachieving? How do you know if your goals aren't as high as they should be? To me, this is a. This is a. Again, it's a balance. But, you know, I. I also think it's kind of simple. If you. If your goals. If you. If you know for 100 certain for a fact you can achieve what your goal is, it's not a high enough goal. It's not. If you are 100 certain you can do that, you're 100 certain that you can achieve that, it's not a big enough goal. There's no point in having a goal that, you know, you can, you know, can get because that's not going to push you. Right? And what I mean by that is that there needs to be some sort of pressure for you, okay? You need to be unsure of whether or not you can actually do it, because that way you won't be leaving anything on the table. Okay? Because maybe if you, you know, you. You set yourself a goal and you easily get it. Well, you don't know if you could have gotten something even better if you had aimed a little bit higher, right? If you had aimed for something that was way more difficult, maybe you wouldn't have gotten that thing, but you might have gotten way farther than you actually got with your easy goal. Okay? So think about it that way. Your goal should definitely be something that pushes you, that you're unsure of whether or not you can actually do it. Okay? And I kind of got this idea from. From Kobe, because Kobe was talking about when, you know, post retirement, he was. He was saying where, you know, he was talking his process for how he, you know, how he makes his films and his book and everything like that. All his creative endeavors, he was. He was a part of. He was talking about bringing guys onto his team and, like, how he. How he finds people for his team. And he was saying, you know, when I interview people, like, I don't. I don't. I don't hire people who are 100% sure that they can do what they. That they can reach what their Goals are right. Like, if I have a guy who comes in, he's like, oh, yeah, for sure. Like, this is my vision for this project. I know I can do it. Gonna be easy. For sure. No question. No problem. Go get it done. Kobe's like, I'd rather have a guy who's kind of unsure. He's like, you know what? Like, Kobe, I mean, I think I really want to do this, but, like, I'm not 100% sure we're able to do it. Like, this is tough. Like, that's the guys that Kobe wanted because he realized that those are the guys he's gonna get the most out of because they're gonna have to push themselves to be the best they can possibly be. That's how you make the best possible documentary, the best possible book. All that stuff he was doing, he needs to have guys who were. It's just pushing themselves beyond to where they might have even thought that they could get to, because that was how he could get the best possible outcome from those guys. So, you know, Kobe understood that's how you get the most out of somebody. Right? They have to be challenged, and it shouldn't be easy. It shouldn't feel easy. And there's no point living life doing things that are just easy for you, right? That you don't have to actually have any sort of pressure, any risk. You got to take risk. Okay? And, you know, we talk about goal setting all the time. I mean, episode one was. Was all about how you shouldn't tell people your goals, right? We talked about, you know, how to. How to actually set goals that are gonna help you to. To actually reach them. And if you haven't seen that one, make sure you guys check out episode one. But in that episode, I talked about how when you have your goals, you shouldn't tell people those things. Okay. And because of that, like, the. The reason for that, essentially, was because you. When you. When your goals are your own, it's. It's. You have ownership over them. Okay? So kind of what I was talking about with guys who. You know, when you guys are just going there and post their workouts, then they feel like that's all they need to do, right? Because once they let people know what they're doing, what they want, all of a sudden it's like. It almost gives you a sense of, like, I already did this thing, and it's just kind of how our brains work, okay? So keeping those goals to yourself, that. That gives you more of an ownership over them, and you're going to realize yourself, like, I haven't done this yet. Like I have to work to get it because I haven't done it. Okay? So that was kind of my thought behind that. But you know, that's why I have a ton of goals that I don't share. Like, I don't tell you guys that. I don't tell anybody that just because they're mine. Right. Like I, and I see them happening, but I want to, we can talk about them once they're done. But until that point, I'm just working on those things. Okay. But one goal that I will share with you guys that is kind of a long term thing for me is I want to help develop one future NBA player. Right? That's my goal right now. Whether that be through online, through my YouTube, through the perimeter score system, or any of my online training stuff, Whether that be through in person training. I want to develop one NBA player. I want to have one NBA player who goes up using my stuff, using my training that I'm in contact with that makes to the NBA because of the stuff that I'm doing. Okay. Now, am I, am I there yet? No, I'm not there yet. I don't think I'm there yet. Maybe, I mean, we won't, obviously won't know until down the line, but that's the goal. And obviously I just share with you the numbers. 450 out of 450 million players, 450 of them are in the NBA. So obviously odds are not in my favor at all. Right? But here's the thing. I don't even care, like if I don't, if I don't reach that goal. But I helped develop 40 college players. Did I fail? No, I didn't fail because I still developed 40 college players. Right? So all of a sudden things become very, very different when you look at that perspective. I might set a high goal for myself, but if I don't achieve it, I already know that what I will achieve, even if it's technically not that goal, is going to be great. Okay? So I'm not even worried about not getting to what I want to get to because I already know regardless of the things I'm going to get, I'm going to be happy with the outcome that I. That I'll see. I want to hook you guys up with my free elite perimeter score workout. This workout is going to help you develop the skills that you need to be an elite score on the perimeter. And I'm going to send it to you guys completely free. All you need to do is click the top link in my description below. I'll get that right to you.