7.22 Willie Mays: Be Consistent

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“It isn’t hard to be good from time to time in sports. What’s tough is being good every day.” - Willie Mays

Are you someone who shows up and performs every day, or do you show up and perform only when you feel like it?

I’m in the airport ready to fly home from our final AAU tournament of the season—I just finished another season as the head coach of a NIKE EYBL basketball team. I believe this is the toughest, most competitive league in the country.

Four times a season, you have to play a 5 or 6 game schedule against some of the toughest teams and players in the country. We tell our athletes to be the best, you have to be able to put together great weekends, not just a great game. Then you have to be able to put together a great season, not just one great weekend.

You have to be consistently great if you want to be the best.

Willie Mays was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He once said, “It isn’t hard to be good from time to time in sports. What’s tough is being good every day.”

A broken clock is right at least twice a day, and everyone can get lucky. But there are not a lot of people who can show up and be good every single day.

If you can, you can set yourself apart from almost everyone else in the world.

Question of the Day: What is one area in your life in which you can do a better job of being more consistent?

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