Practice Like Jordan

I'm up early. Drinking a cup of the good Columbian stuff and reading about basketball legend Michael Jordan. One line struck me: “my practice habits were great.”

When I do workshops or attend book-signings, people sometimes say to me: “Robin, you make personal mastery and business leadership sound so easy to achieve in your books but it's a lot harder to do in reality.” Here's my reply: leadership comes from doing the tough things rather than by doing the easy stuff. Gandhi got to greatness by engaging in difficult pursuits (the kind that no one else was willing to tackle). So did Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr. and every other leader in society, business and life. So important to do the uncommon things to rise above the ordinary. Which brings me to your practice habits.

Any human being can live an extraordinary life. But you need to fight for it. You need to want it - with a deep degree of passion and a breathtaking level of commitment. I've never said it was easy. If it was easy, everyone would be world-class. Getting to your own unique personal and professional mountaintop takes focus, discipline and dedication (3 key traits of personal and organizational leadership). It takes daily practice around your best habits just like the great athletes derive their high performance from the practice habits.
You'd laugh if Jordan said he became the best without daily practice. Yet some of us wonder why we need to practice and work hard to build a beautiful life. Everything great takes effort. Actually, the greater the effort and sacrifices involved in the creation of something, the greater the rewards that flow (just my take on it).