Whether you're playing or watching the game, basketball is a special thing to be a part of. The emotion and passion people have while playing is one of desire and enjoyment. To many people that's all it is, a game, something we played in high school that will never affect our lives. I laugh at those people. Basketball has always been there for me and has taught not only me but everyone involved in it many life lessons that we use every day.

If you’re in this game of life long enough, you’ll come to experience countless failures. The worst thing you can do is dwell on them. Basketball taught us to get up after a mistake and make it up back on defense, because we can’t let one mess up lead into another one. Michael Jordan is undoubtedly the best player to ever play the game of basketball, and he had hundreds of failures. But he also learned from his failures. He learned from all of his experiences and became the greatest to ever set foot on a hardwood floor. If we want to be great at something, we have to learn to embrace our failures and grow because of them.

A quote that always come to mind when I'm in some type of competition is "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." So often there's always that one player who shows up early to shoot and is always there after practice making some kind of goal for themselves before they can leave the gym. Being the person who shows up to work early, stays late and gives their best will more often than not have some type of reward. If we continue to do this, we build up a reputation for being someone who will always give their best effort and eventually special opportunities will present themselves. In the words of the late legend John Wooden, “Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing that you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.”

Last but not least, if we don't believe in ourselves, we can accomplish nothing. The best players on the basketball court are the ones that believe they are the best. They are the ones that are confident enough in their own abilities to seize opportunities rather than worry about what things might go wrong. The same applies to life. Say you have an interview for a job. You do everything in your power to be ready, and you know that you are qualified for the position, you wouldn't feel worried. You know that everything you've done to prepare for what you are doing is going to work out.

Just like the game of basketball, the game clock on our lives is slowly counting down. Now hopefully, we have more than 32 minutes of life left, but if we live every day of life like we played the great game of basketball I know we will be content with what we've done with our life.