In preparation for our upcoming season, the App State softball team watched videos of Kobe Bryant interviews during his basketball career. Besides their motivational factor, they share a message that everyone would benefit from hearing.

As athletes, we tend to have a hard time separating our emotions from the game when we need to. If we listen to what Kobe says, we should think tactically, not emotionally. This means to have a mindset about your process that is more strategic and objective to get done what you need to do. Rather than mixing in our emotions when we make a mistake or fail to prepare, we can accomplish our goals more efficiently with a tactical mindset.

Touching on preparation, Kobe explains that a routine of consistency is necessary to prepare for his games. He prepares himself before every practice and game the same way so that he stays in tune with his mind, body, and goals. Training his body for a professional game was way different than his training for high school. The number of games he played increased tremendously, and he had to take that into consideration. If you say you’re going to do something, do it automatically without question. That is part of preparing yourself – doing whatever it takes, consistently, to be the best player and person you can be.

In the video when Kobe was asked what time of player he was – one that loves to win or hates to lose – he replies with a simple, “neither.” He describes himself as a player who plays to learn. If you play to learn, you can’t play with a fear of failure. Playing with a fear of failure will always set you up for failure because you’re putting unnecessary pressure on yourself in the process. Failure, as Kobe describes, is a figment of your imagination. It doesn’t exist. The only way you’ll fail is if you decide not to progress from your mistakes because mistakes are positive if they are part of the learning process. Failure doesn’t happen if you learn from it, because then “failures” are just lessons. The worst possible thing you can do is stop. If you quit just because you think you’ve failed, you’re not giving yourself the chance to learn, grow or progress.

Kobe believes that the same weaknesses from basketball will carry over into his life after his basketball career. Therefore, you must learn from your weaknesses and fix them instead of accepting them as failures so that your life after sports has new strengths in their place.

The last lesson from Kobe that we learned was to run your own race. Your process is different than everyone else’s. It’s only important that you are growing and developing at your own rate and on your own time. Don’t run someone else’s race because constantly comparing your successes to theirs will only create disappointment and discouragement. Focus on your process and you’ll succeed when you’re ready.

These lessons are all applicable to sports, but we can carry them into our lives after our sports careers are over too. It’s important to take the time to self-evaluate and recognize what is helping you grow or holding you back. Just remember to think like Kobe.