Motivate Yourself By Having An Opponent
Basketball great Isiah Thomas was asked how a player could focus and get mentally tougher while going into a championship game, where he was surrounded by distractions.
“It’s possible,” Thomas said. “You have to sustain concentration on your opponents.”
He went on to add:
“I just stayed in my hotel room and watched tape. I never got involved in the atmosphere of the Finals. My first Finals we’d played the Lakers, and we went out there and won Game 1 and lost Game 2. But we wanted to make sure we didn’t get caught up in the whole Hollywood atmosphere of Los Angeles. The people there tried to suck us up into that; they sent limousines to our hotel to take us to the Playboy Club and to parties. But we didn’t go for it. Instead, 24 hours a day I was thinking about the opponent I was going to play against.”
Source: NBA.com: Handling the Pressure
So how does this translate to your life? The solution is to concentrate on your opponents or enemies, since success is the best revenge. (If you don’t have any enemies, invent some.)
When you’re doing work, imagine how you’re gaining an advantage over that person and leaving them in the dust.
A lot of successful entrepreneurs have got an axe to grind. A lot of successful people in business got really angry about something that happened in their life, and the passion for their work is a way to channel their energy.
Comment by Prabha
This is awesome, I’ma go churn up some enemies.
Posted on May 22, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Comment by Tony
I find this blog so interesting, I write songs and understand “writers block”..it is so true that while you are not “writing” you are “researching” and the longer you “research” the higher the bar is getting lifted for you to jump.
I gather the key IS “flow” as I have experienced this many a time…I think also the tide of confidence is also a factor…..When you run out of “Talk” you better start to walk.
Posted on October 9, 2008 at 10:17 am
Comment by Joseph
I recognize I am lazy and I understand it in my astrological chart. Have a professional astrologer look at the birth chart of a lazy person, and they may be able to provide a plan to help them out, perhaps including herbs. And writer’s block has everything to do with Mercury phases. Astrology was in season for thousands of years; it’s a good idea to look into it (through a professional).
Posted on September 18, 2009 at 11:32 am