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I
Can't Accept Not Trying
I visualized where I wanted to be, what kind of player I
wanted to become,
I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and I focused on getting there.
Michael Jordan
On Fears
I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot. Why? Because when you
think about the consequences you always think of a negative result.
Some people get frozen by that fear of failure. They get it from peers or from
just thinking about the possibility of a negative result. They might be afraid
of looking bad or being embarrassed. I realized that if I was going to achieve
anything in life I had to be aggressive. I had to get out there and go for it. I
don't believe you can achieve anything by being passive. I'm not thinking about
anything except what I'm trying to accomplish. Any fear is an illusion. You
think something is standing in your way, but nothing is really there. What is
there is an opportunity to do your best and gain some success. If it turns out
my best isn't good enough, then at least I'll never be able to look back and say
I was too afraid to try. Failure always made me try harder the next time.
That's why my advice has always been to think positive and find fuel in any
failure. Sometimes failure actually just gets you closer to where you want to
be. If I'm trying to fix a car, every time I try something that doesn't work,
I'm getting closer to finding the answer. The greatest inventions in the world
had hundreds of failures before the answers were found.
I think fear sometimes comes from a lack of focus or concentration. If I had
stood at the free-throw line and thought about 10 million people watching me on
the other side of the camera lens, I couldn't have made anything. So I mentally
tried to put myself in a familiar place. I thought about all those times I shot
free throws in practice and went through the same motion, the same technique
that I had used thousands of times. You forget about the outcome. You know you
are doing the right things. So you relax and perform. After that you can't
control anything anyway. It's out of your hands, so don't worry about it.
On Commitment
I approached practices the same way I approached games. You can't turn it on and
off like a faucet. I couldn't dog it during practice and then, when I needed
that extra push late in the game, expect it to be there. But that's why a lot of
people fail. They sound like they're committed to being the best they can be.
They say all the right things, make all the proper appearances. But when it
comes right down to it, they are looking for reasons instead of answers. If
you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I've had them, everybody has
had them.
But obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around
and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.