How Preparing Like an NBA Champion Can Help You Win in Any Career

Practice makes perfect, they say. If you were glued to your television during the battle of the Steph CurryNBA Finals for the championship ring, you witnessed this for yourself. The professional basketball players on both teams showed impeccable skills on the court during each and every game. Dave McKay stated, “but there’s no question that displays like the magic put on by Warriors guard Stephen Curry are only possible after extensive drilling and diligent preparation. Take his pregame routine, for example. It includes dribbling two basketballs at the same time, all to further prepare and hone his balance, coordination and agility. Over time, these practice drills lead to muscle memory, allowing a player to execute in real time at game speed without hesitating.”

Curry isn’t the only person who practices this vigorously to make himself perfect on the basketball court. Many athletes do this in order to prepare for every single game, but this notion of being prepared is not just seen in the sports industry. McKay quoted Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly by herself across the Atlantic Ocean, “’Preparation, I have often said, is rightly two-thirds of any venture.’” Although preparation is the common factor among many successful individuals, it is not the only integral part of the equation. In order to be successful in any type of professional role, preparing yourself for your role should be the number one element followed by these additional tips:

  • Make a conscious effort to exceed in your role – your effort to excel will be seen in your results
  • Listen to a lot of advice – both internal and external
  • Do as much research and extensive analysis as you can
  • Read up on your role and how you can become better at it

As McKay says, be so good in your role that you are, “dribbling two basketballs before the big game, to create muscle memory within the organization so that [you] could move at speed when needed,” just like Stephen Curry!

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-preparing-like-nba-champion-can-help-you-win-business-dave-mckay?trk=tod-posts-post1-ptlt