The Need for Vision

Here are three quotes from one of my favorite books, Getting Things Done by David Allen. The focus of his book is organization, but the following quotes certainly relate to some important lessons about life and hoops.

“There are only two problems in life: (1) you know that you want, and you don’t know how to get it; and/or (2) you don’t know what you want.” - Steven Snyder

“A vision without a task is but a dream, a task without a vision is drudgery, a vision and a task is the hope of the world.” - From a church is Sussex, England, ca. 1730

“You’ve got to think about the big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.” - Alvin Toffler

Each of those quotes is worth some reflection, but the first lesson I want to point out here (with a second soon to come) is the necessity of vision. In short, every basketball team and every basketball player needs to be clear about what they want. They need to have a clear goal, a clear objective, a clear vision that they work in light of. For without such a goal, all tasks (such as practice, weight lifting, etc.) are bound to become drudgery (as the second quote states).

Not only that, but every team and every player needs to consistently rehearse their respective goal to itself or him/herself. That is, they can’t forget about it. They can’t write it down on paper and place that sheet of paper in the bottom desk drawer. No. They need to keep their objective, their goal, their vision, before themselves every single day. No matter what they may be doing, they have to remember where they are headed. They have to remind themselves where their daily, detailed work is taking them. For without such reminders, burn out is soon to come.

I didn’t understand any of these realities when I was a 13 year-old kid playing on the Kindle School playground in Pitman, NJ. That is, I couldn’t have explained them to you. But experience oftentimes precedes explanation. For I realize now that the thing that kept me working day in and day out (oftentimes for hours in 95 degree weather) was vision. Goals. Objectives. My vision of a High School State Championship, big time College Basketball, and playing in the NBA led me to workout without getting burned out. It enabled me to push myself beyond known limits during the grind of basketball training.

I remember countless days when I didn’t want to practice. But then my goals would come to mind and I would be reminded that if I wanted to obtain them, I would have to put in the work today. So I would go up to the court and let my imagination run wild. I would daydream as I played. I hit countless imaginary game winners and had countless imaginary great games. I kept the big things in mind while practicing the small things. Consequently, I continued to move in the right direction.

There are lessons here for everyone involved in the game of basketball. For the good of the team, a Coach must be a man or woman of vision. If he is going to keep his team from getting burned out by the day to day grind of practice, he needs to set goals for his squad and remind them of such goals daily. For I have seen (and been a part of) numerous teams that have burned out for lack of vision. They forget about the big things and therefore, lose all motivation to diligently work on the small things that make the big things happen.

And so it is also for the individual basketball player. In order to keep yourself motivated to do the little things (ball-handling drills, shooting work, etc.), you need to remember the big things. You need to have a clarity of vision, to know your objective, to be clear about your goals. Even now, at 28 years of age, if I lose sight of what my goals are as a basketball player, I am done. I have lost the ‘why’ for work. Burn out is soon to come. But if I have a clarity of vision for where I want to be as a basketball player, I can go to practice with eager expectation, knowing that the tasks for the day fit into the big picture. I can push myself time and again by being clear about where I want to be.

That being said, do you have a clarity of vision for your personal development of your team? If not, I would encourage you to clarify your goals before you do anything else. Of course, if you are just playing or coaching for fun, that is great. But if you want to have fun and find (or by finding) success, you are best to be clear about what you really want in the end.