Activity

Never Confuse Activity With Accomplishment

I can hear their voices like it was yesterday. Those demanding Sales VP’s that I used to report to. “How many sales appointments do you have this week?” “How many cold calls did you make?” “How many appointments do you have with decision makers?” Don’t tell me about your activity, I want to see your accomplishments.

What does this have to do with basketball? Nothing and everything at the same time. The saying goes..Never confuse activity with accomplishment. When asked a question, or questions we are quick to offer back our activities, but usually slow to correlate our activity level to our list of accomplishments.

For example:

What did you do today, this week, month or year to make yourself more attractive to college or pro scouts?

How often do you analyze your game then map out a plan to follow on a daily, monthly, yearly basis?

You spent 4 hours in the gym, great...how many shots did you take, how many did you make? What was the focus of training for that day?

You plan on playing in 10 tournaments this summer, great.. How many of those are attended by people who can award scholarships and how many are attended by Johnny, Joey and Mary’s parents and grandparents. It’s great that they are cheering, but they can’t get you a scholarship or a pro contract.

I’m going to 5 camps this summer, great... Are you going to listen, learn and soak up everything you possible can, or are you going to be the one sleeping during lectures, hanging out at the canteen, or playing video games when people like myself are flown in to provide useful tips and information on how to improve your game?
What do you do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis to increase your knowledge and skill level? Do you know how to fill out a college application? Apply for financial aid? How about submitting your name for the NBA/WNBA Draft, are you at all familiar with the process?

Who do you associate with? Are they helping or hurting your success?

I could go on with endless scenarios, the point is this..whatever you are doing whether it is corporate sales or basketball don’t let the things that matter least get in the way of the thing that matter most. “Approach everything with the end in mind”, if your activity isn’t bringing you closer to your dreams than it’s taking you further away. Just because you’re doing things doesn’t mean your doing those things well.

“Never Confuse Activity with Accomplishment”