If you can tie your shoes...you can do ANYTHING!

"If one has the capacity to learn, and the commitment necessary to practice incessantly, one can do anything, as long as they believe they can." -Dame Malone

In order to be good at something, one must practice that thing. But the act of practice is not enough. One must practice the RIGHT WAY, in order achieve the desired results. Let's look at the sport of basketball as an example. There is a right way to shoot a basketball in order give the individual shooting the ball, the best chance of getting the ball in the hoop. This is not to say that there is only ONE way, but there is only one BEST way. Since the objective is to get the ball in the hoop every time it is shot (no one should expect to miss when they shoot it), one must believe that every time they shoot the ball...it is going into the hoop with 100% certainty. In order for that to be the case (that shooting the ball will result in the ball going into the hoop) one MUST believe that if the ball is shot correctly, it will go in the hoop 100% of the time. So the issue becomes shooting the ball correctly, NOT whether or not I can get the ball to go in the hoop...which is a now a forgone conclusion.

Thus I must PRACTICE shooting the ball CORRECTLY, so that it becomes “second-nature” for me to do so. There are certain techniques that are to be followed in order to shoot the ball correctly. One’s feet must be spaced a certain way...knees must bend to a certain degree...the ball must be held a certain way...fingers must be spread a certain way...the shooter must be facing the basket...the elbows must be kept inward to a certain degree...and there must be a certain flex of the wrist (follow through) in order to shoot correctly. When all of these these things are done, and done correctly, there is a 100% chance the ball will go into the hoop if the ball or the shooter is not interfered with (wind, a defender, the crowd, an injury, etc.). And if the ball does not go into the hoop, there is also a 100% chance this is due to incorrect shooting form. Which means that every time a basketball player shoots and misses the hoop, he/she can attribute that failure to either lack of focus or lack of preparedness. Execution is merely a function of preparedness and focus.

With that being said, can we not deduce from the previous statements, that if you can bend your knees, flex your wrists, etc., there is a 100% chance you CAN shoot a basketball in the hoop every time you try? And if you practiced enough, and can practice correctly, you WILL get the ball into the hoop 100% of the time?

If you are still not sure about that, then allow me to pose another question to you.

Do you know how to tie your shoes? I realize this sounds like a silly question, but bear with me for a second. Of course your answer is probably yes, so I will pose another question to you. Why do you know how to tie your shoes? Do you remember when you learned? Think back for a minute. Were you 3 years old? 4 years old? Was it easy or difficult to learn? Do you remember?

Did you learn because you practiced over and over again until you got it right? If you were like most people, you didn’t quite get it right the first time. But you tried and tried...loop here, swing around there...until you got it right. But the next day, you probably forgot a step or two, and it took a while but you figured it out again.

So I have one more question for you. When attempting to tie your shoes now as an adult, how often do you get it wrong? How often is it that when you go to tie your shoes, you just screw it all up? Perhaps one out of one thousand?

And to what do you attribute the anomaly of messing up such a seemingly mundane task....lack of focus?

Most of the time it will be because you perhaps tried to tie them too fast and your coordination was off. But it wouldn’t be because you forgot how to tie them. This is hard wired in your brain. If you slowed down just enough to do it right,you would get it right 1000 out of 1000 times with no problem (fatigue notwithstanding). You really don’t even think about it, do you? You just tie them. Its the same with riding a bike, once you learn, you know. And that’s it. You may get a bit rusty, after some time has passed, but it doesn’t take long to get the handle of riding again. You don’t forget how. So, how is shooting a basketball any different? It isn’t. If you can tie your shoes right 99.999 percent of the time, then you can do the same with shooting a basketball in a hoop. Your mind tells your body whether something is easy or hard. What are you telling your mind when you tie your shoes?

If I told you that it takes as much brain power and body-coordination to tie your shoes as it does to shoot a basketball into a 10-foot goal from 15 feet away would you believe me? You should, because it does. But the more important question is, why you believe shooting a basketball, or doing calculus, playing the piano, speaking in public, running a business, is any more difficult than tying your shoes?

Any task that appears to be difficult can be achieved through the power of repetition. Our brain responds to repetition by hard-wiring the processes learned in our sub-conscious mind. The level of difficulty of a task is no longer a relevant issue to our brain. We have convinced our brain that tying our shoes is a simple, even mundane task, and we don’t give it a second thought. It is through this repetition, that we make and learn from our mistakes. It is through repetition, that we discover new and better ways of doing something. And it is through repetition that we can learn to do just about anything we can imagine.

This is the foundation of coaching on any level. Helping individuals and teams use their ability, capacity and commitment to meet and exceed their goals. It is motivating and inspiring individuals to reach their highest potential, while helping them to understand their own role and responsibility in the process.