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Category: Inspiring Others

Misfit Inspiration

When I finally agreed to play basketball with a new group of guys—I was nervous.

I hadn’t ever played basketball on a team and had no formal training or experience. I rarely watched games or any kind of tutorial video.

All I had was what I learned playing pick-up ball in driveways and parks at various times throughout my life and a pretty solid fitness baseline.

What I saw when I first showed up was a group of guys who were organized and experienced. They were calling picks and plays and communicating things that sounded like a different language to me—and they were all good.

But, of everybody on the court playing, one guy stood out to me.

He was shorter, didn’t have the cleanest technique, and wasn’t the most talented—but he played like he belonged. And later, I came to find out he was one of the group organizers who had been playing for years and years with this squad.

Of everybody on that court, he was the one who inspired me the most. Not the most skilled player; not the best shooter; and not the player who could dunk—but, the player who I could relate to the most.

This was a really important lesson for me. You don’t have to be the best in the game to inspire and you don’t have to be the most talented to play. And even if you don’t look the part—it’s acting the part that makes all the difference.

So to the people out there who are doing things despite mismatching societal norms—thank you. Y’all are far more inspiring than you might ever know.

On Doing “Good”

One of my martial arts students pulled me aside the other day, with an upcoming tournament on his mind, and told me his main motivation to compete comes from the idea of inspiring his son—who also trains martial arts.

He told me he wanted his son to see him do “good” so that he’d be inspired to do good, too.

I asked him what doing “good” meant to him.

He said, “winning.”

I asked him if winning was what was most important to him when it came to his son’s performance… because I could put him with a group of white belts if that’s what he wanted (he’s a red belt).

He thought about it for a minute and said, “No.”

He then described how he would want his son to show courage, have fun, try his best, demonstrate good sportsmanship, and use the experiences from the tournament as fuel for his future training.

I told him that if that’s what he wanted his son to prioritize… the best thing he can do is prioritize those same things, too.

P.s. If you’d like to read along, I’m going to start uploading quotes from Think Like A Monk by Jay Shetty to MoveMe Quotes in the upcoming weeks.

Copiers

When you’re scared to share out of fear that what you know will get copied or taken… it means you don’t have a sufficient personal growth / learning system in place.

The formulas are simple:

  • When learning/growth < what’s shared ➜ Fear of getting copied / ideas taken
  • When learning/growth > what’s shared ➜ Joy in having people copy and use your ideas
  • When learning/growth = what’s shared ➜ Mixed feelings towards different copying / idea-using situations

Lesson: Always disproportionately prioritize time for learning and personal growth over what you have time to share and you’ll never fear getting copied or having ideas taken—in fact, it’ll only bring you increasing joy to see people act from your influence.

And to those who maliciously copy and steal your ideas in an attempt to selfishly make personal gains—report them and take the appropriate actions, but remember, ideas superficially understood quickly crumble under even the slightest stress test.

Authenticity and an internal understanding of what’s shared are what stand strong against the relentless tests of time. Believe it.

The Actual Goal

What I’m ACTUALLY trying to get people to realize when I teach/ train/ coach:

The reward of doing 1 hour of hard work >>>>> 1000 moments of media-based dopamine hits.

On Coming Around

People will come around when they will.

It’s not your responsibility to make them come around or to expedite their coming around process (unless, of course, it is).

It’s your responsibility to focus on your own coming around.

Don’t put your life on hold so that others can have somebody else focused on their coming around.

Keep playing your life out as you will (without hesitation or apology) and leave behind a strong model worth coming around for.

P.s. In case you missed it, you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week here.

Mind Seeds

You’re much more likely to grow a tree by planting seeds than you are just waiting for the seeds to plant themselves.

The same is true for growing people.

You’re much more likely to inspire growth in people by planting mind seeds than you are waiting for the seeds to plant themselves.

Are You A Leader?

Leadership is influence—nothing more and nothing less.

And if you interact with people, guess what? You influence them.

You can’t interact with someone and not influence them.

Therefore, it’s time you started looking at yourself as a leader.

This, in and of itself, has the ability to change your whole demeanor.

Next, you must carefully reflect on how you’ve been using your influence.

  • Are you influencing people to become better versions of themselves or worse?
  • Are you using your influence to promote more good in the world or harm?
  • Are your means of influencing based in love or hate?

It’s time we stopped looking at leadership as a role reserved for a select few.

It’s a role that each of us gets to embody in full each day.

The question simply becomes: will you own it?