Читать книгу Unstoppable - Anderson Dave - Страница 8

Phil Beckner is a men's assistant basketball coach at Boise State University and has an extended history coaching Portland Trail Blazer Damian Lillard, dating back to Lillard's time at Weber State. Beckner continues to serve as a personal coach and mentor, and trains Lillard now in two-week stints during off-seasons. Lillard has a world-class work ethic that he has developed over the years, which has lifted him to game changer status in the National Basketball Association (NBA), but it started well before he turned pro. Coach Beckner observes:

One of the most relentless and driven competitors…tireless, freak workers I have ever been around is Damian Lillard. You can easily identify Lillard as a game changer because of the impact he has had on the people and teams he has been a part of. Early on, Dame had a healthy fear;…he wouldn't accept not improving; he refused to become comfortable; he refused to become complacent;…he didn't rest on his past accomplishments. He worked hard. Period.

After his first season in the NBA and being named NBA rookie of the year, Lillard trained with the same inner circle of people he worked with the previous summer, but Lillard would still grow scared. Not scared to compete. Not scared to go up against the best of the best in the NBA at the best position in the NBA (point guard), but scared that he would not improve enough. Scared that he couldn't evolve. Scared that every other point guard in the NBA was possibly working harder, and trying to get better than him. So he used the same formula he always did – the same formula other game changers use. He worked harder, and harder, and harder. He lifted more, he trained more, he shot more, and he watched more video (Phil Beckner, pers. comm.).

For an undertaker or caretaker to shift into becoming a Damian Lillard, it does not take an additional smidgen of talent. It does, however, require a seismic shift in mindset; which, by the way, you are in control of changing. This also means you are to blame if you do not change it.

To be capable of doing more, but then to make a conscious choice not to, is just a sneakier, more creative way of quitting.