Laser focus & Determination

G’day all

Friday rolls around again, and we are already saying goodbye to January and helloooo February!

Wow… Feeling fatigue already from the new year’s resolutions, and trying to live up to them?  It can be tough.

All throughout the media at the moment is the tragic death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter, along with 7 other people in a helicopter crash in California this week.  Certainly a tragedy for all on board and their families, but of course, we all knew of Kobe Bryant, and while very few of us knew him personally, he lived a life of meaning and was a beacon to what is possibly for us all.

I want to focus briefly though on one of Kobe’s mechanisms of success – his Black Mamba Mantra…

He apparently learnt about the black mamba snake in the film, Kill Bill, then decided to take the name on as his alter ego.  From that point on, when he was on the court, he became ‘The Black Mamba’.

But this wasn’t about puffing himself up or trying to big note himself… This was about survival. He said:

“I had to separate myself. It felt like there were so many things coming at once. It was just becoming very, very confusing. I had to organize things. So I created the ‘Black Mamba.’”

How awesome is this!  We all have that feeling of overwhelm with so many things coming at us at once…from all directions. The mind will find a million things to worry about, even if you’re as successful as Bryant was.  Even just trying to live up to our new year’s resolutions, how much is the universe throwing at you?!

The Black Mamba allowed him to leave everything behind as soon as he stepped onto the court. He didn’t have to worry about the bills, or how the kids were going at school, or any of the million things we all have to worry about. He was focused, determined, lethal on the court.  The Black Mamba was a work of mental discipline. It was an incredible act of focus and determination.

And I think a lot of what Bryant achieved in his incredible career can be put down to this superhero-level focus, and the mantra that made it possible. 

Now maybe we don’t need to develop this level of focus, but what this teaches us is that with superhero focus, anything is possible…so go on…don that cape and see what you can achieve!

Thank you Kobe, for the inspiration.  His legacy is huge… but he also has now taught us the sobering fact, that no matter what you have, it can all be taken away in a heartbeat…

Happy Investing all! And have a great weekend!!