Playing How We Practice
I once had a basketball coach say something that forever stuck with me. It happened on the heels of a horrible practice; a practice which we were goofing off, playing at half speed, and not focusing on the nuances of the sets. He came into the locker room and screamed, "We play how we practice, and if today's practice was any indication, we're about to get our a**'s kicked tomorrow night."
Ouch! Turns out, he was right. We got steamrolled by a conference rival the following day. That principle, though, has always stuck with me. The intensity at which we practice has a direct correlation with how we'll show up in the games. Michael Jordan was famous for this. He specifically engineered the Chicago Bulls' practices to be so brutal and intense that their games felt easy. Did it work? Well, they have six championship rings, suggesting it did.
This principle carries over into my financial coaching world. When I'm working with couples, I watch closely how they handle the little things. For example, one of my clients received a $2,000 tax refund. It's not a huge amount of money, but it's something with heft to it. It matters. Despite being deeply in debt and desirous to gain firmer footing, they elected to blow this cash on pure wants. This was the proverbial practice, and they sluffed off. They had an opportunity to show discipline and wisdom with a smaller sum of money.....and blew it. This informed me that they would soon make even worse decisions with larger sums of money (the proverbial game). Fast forward through the next year, and that's exactly what happened. Their behavior in practice carried over directly to their performance during the games.
I see the opposite happen, too. When I watch a couple make wise choices with the smaller things, it gives me confidence that they will make similarly wise choices with the bigger moments. Like clockwork, it happens just like that. They play how they practice, and in their personal situation, it looks like Michael Jordan out there.
The same applies to you and me. We play how we practice. Let's be wise with the smaller moments, as those same behaviors and practices will soon transcend into the bigger moments. If we treat every practice like a game, we’ll be wearing those championship rings soon enough!
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