“We live in a world of what have you done for me lately. We don’t remember the day before sometimes. Think back five, six, years ago what he was doing. It’s unheard of.”
Kevin Durant is a professional basketball player who plays for the Brooklyn Nets (as of July 2021). During his college days, he was a star player. He was selected second overall in the 2007 NBA draft by the Seattle SuperSonics after only one season of college basketball at the University of Texas. He has won the 2013-14 National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player (MVP) award and is regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of his generation while only in his 20s.
“Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”
If you work hard enough, you can do anything. That piece of advice has been given to us so many times that it has lost its meaning. The issue is that we already feel like we’re working hard, yet many of us don’t seem to be making progress.
“It’s fun that I get to live out my dream every single day. It’s a blessing. I can’t lose sight of that and I’ve just gotta keep pushing.”
When you live your dreams, you permit yourself to be someone other than who you are now, disregard your logical thinking, have faith in yourself, and believe in something that does not yet exist.
“I always want to win because I never want to sit out on the sidelines outside.”
Successful athlees, leaders, and other high achievers recognize that the journey is the destination. You never show up. You put in a lot of effort to achieve success, and then you put in even more effort to keep it. It’s a long process. It all begins with your thinking.
“My wildest dreams are when I’m wide awake.”
“I’m a basketball player. That’s what I do and what I love but that’s just not all who I am. I’m talented in a lot of different areas.”
Our strengths are based on our skills or talents. People who use their strengths daily were studied to see how it improves their performance and general quality of life. People who use their abilities and talents (which come naturally and may be improved through practice) daily are six times more likely to be engaged at work.
“With everything I do, I just try to be myself.”
When we let go of all of the tales, titles, and judgments we have placed on ourselves, we become our genuine selves. Without the masks and pretentiousness, it is who we are at our core. When we let go of the cloak of other people’s belongings that we have taken on, it reveals who we truly are.
“So many people doubted me. They motivated me every single day to be who I am.”
When we lack confidence or believe we are incapable of doing what we need to achieve, we experience self-doubt. People who have self-doubt suffer anxiety about things they can’t control or worry about things not going as planned. “Whoever wants my spot can play me one-on-one for it.”
“I’ve learned what it feels like to lose, believe me. But I think in the end, that is just going to make winning that much better.”
In reality, one of the most potent and important characteristics of progress, both in and out of the ring, is humility. Being humble promotes trust and learning, both of which are important for leadership and personal development.
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