A Humble Mind

A Humble Mind

You cannot grow without a humble mind.  You can’t receive advice or constructive criticism or instruction (that can really help you) from your coaches, teachers and parents if you don’t approach it with a humble mind.  You have to approach every class and practice like, ‘Man, I could really use this this. I NEED this.’ 

A humble mind is a mind that knows that it can learn from anybody at any time.  A humble mind knows that it needs to be a lifelong learner if it wants to be the best that it can be.  A humble mind knows that it has to keep working hard, consistently and every day, to become the best that they can be.

If you think that you already know everything a coach or teacher is trying to teach you, or that you don’t need to hear this lesson because you already know it, or you think this drill is for somebody else because you can already do it, then you will miss out on something that could have really helped you; as a student, a player, and as a person.  If you think that you already know everything, you will miss something that could have changed your life.

We all need it all.  We need everything.  We need as much teaching and constructive criticism and practice as possible to become the best that we can become.  We need to be reminded of this every time that we have a chance to be reminded.  We benefit from being told, even the simple things, over and over and over again. 

Only a humble mind can be taught anything.

Only a person with a humble mind can receive correction.  We have to want to grow.  We have to want to learn.

Don’t think more highly of yourself than you should.   Don’t have an exaggerated opinion of your own importance.  When you do, you stop growing because you stop learning and improving.

When you don’t have a humble mind and you start to think more highly of yourself than you should, you start to look down on other people.  You start looking down on your teammates, your classmates and even your coaches and teachers.  When you start looking down on others, you start to have critical and judgmental thoughts about others.  You start to slow down, or shut down, your ability to learn, grow and get better.

A humble mind doesn’t think lowly of itself.  You should always value yourself and see all of your gifts, your talents, and your abilities.   You should love yourself in a balanced way, but you should never think that you are better than anybody else. 

You could be more talented than somebody, but that doesn’t mean that you are better than them.  You might score more points, run faster, and/or make better grades than somebody, but that doesn’t make you better than them. 

A humble mind allows you to trust the process of doing what it takes, over time, to get the results that you want.  Of course, we all want to start on varsity as freshmen and get D1 offers immediately.  Many of us want all of the glory, the trophies, and the love and attention immediately.  But, having a humble mind will allow you to grow the right way by learning a much as you can, working as hard as you can for what you want, and over time, you will achieve what you want.  Having a humble mind will allow you to build and stand on a foundation that won’t break under pressure.

A humble mind is a mind that wants to learn as much as you can and wants to work as hard as you can so that you can become the best that you can.