Do you want to remain 'IN THE MIDDLE of the PACK'
Life is a marathon, that’s a given. And there’s a mammoth crowd at the starting block and you are probably like a speck of dust from the throng of runners who have taken up that challenge to hurdle this lifelong marathon. Unfortunately, 80% of that mammoth group are somewhere in the middle of the pack, neither leaders nor laggards.
And as that mammoth crowd is thinning out along the way and eventually, that marathon will turn into a sprint as the crowd gets filtered, until....... you end up with the 'last man standing'.
In life, most of us tend to be satisfied enough when we are in the middle of the pack. It’s akin to a conservative approach of being safe enough not to fail. But what guarantees do you have that in that middle of the pack position you are in, you won’t stumble, you won’t hit the ground with your face bloodied? Unfortunately, that can happen albeit remotely.
At the ongoing NBA Playoffs within the confines of DisneyWorld in Orlando, Florida, the Miami Heat has taken the NBA League by storm. Till today, everyone across the sports world in the Americas, the Miami Heat has been tagged as somewhere there in the ‘middle of the pack’ ever since the Big 3 [Lebron James, Chris Bosh and D’Wade] left. But the past three weeks, the Miami Heat are rewriting history. They are not just winning. They are sweeping out opponents, first the Indiana Pacers and as of today, the Milwaukee Bucks, the NBA’s #1 ranked team in the regular season. They are literally blanking them with clean slates. To date, Miami Heat is the only undefeated NBA team at the post-season playoff.
But you might argue, you have not set your sights to be a leader. Why in the world a bigger plurality of our population continues to be within the 'middle of the pack'? Very likely, they are happy where they are and they thought, remaining there is good enough as they won't end up in failure. But hey dude, you gotta realize that you might still stumble and end p as a failure in that 'middle of the pack' position. Why can't you raise the bar? As this quotable quote goes, ‘Great Leaders don’t set out to be a leader. They set out to make a difference. It’s never about the role. It’s all about the goal’.
So what’s the trick of the Miami Heat Lifers? It’s their passion, dude. That uncompromising passion in every aspect from training camp, then over to their rigorously draining physical endurance tests and their back-breaking drills and practices. Take Jimmy Butler, their undisputed leader. By 3am, he’s at the gym. Thereafter, his teammates followed suit.
One American sportswriter’s piece today touted that there are two kinds of NBA players, the 82-game players and the 16-game players, the former referring to the 82-game regular season and the latter referring to the ultimate acid tests during the playoffs till its runoffs to the NBA finals. The Milwaukee Bucks, ranked #1 during the regular season’s 82 games are now being tagged as good enough for the 82-game types but not enough to survive the punishing pressures of the ongoing playoffs.
If there’s an NBA icon we can take as an inspiration, it is Michael Jordan who said, ‘I’ve failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed’. Let's bring back our feet firmly on the ground and be the architect of a 'game changer' in our life.
Et vous? How about you?
