Excitability

 The word of the day, excitability.

 That's the ability to be excitable, the special quality of energizing, inspiring, and and making everything you do worth doing, seeing, and participating in.

 It's a great time of year, summer camp season. I've been really blessed to have worked 3 camps at two Division I schools (Mount St. Mary's and VCU) over the course of the past 8 days, and as always, I left knowing that sharing the game of basketball with young people really makes my life. You have to bring a certain amount of excitability to a camp. I tell my players all the time, good habits are contagious, just as bad habits are. You have to show you want to be there right? For me it's easy. There's no place I'd rather be than in the gym, so it comes natural. It's been that way since I was 12 years old, and carrying it over to the next step, coaching, hasn't been difficult for me.

 In order to be great at whatever it is you do, first you have to want to be great, but then I think the thought of being great has to light you up. I talk about buying into yourself first, knowing that you will be successful. If you wouldn't buy what you're selling, why should anyone else? There is some form of motivation behind everything we do. I believe our ability to really get into what we do comes from that motivation. If your motivation is to just get through the day, you are going to put just enough into it to get through.

 But let's say your motivation is that you set your goal to be the best, EVERY TIME OUT. I'm not saying that means you are the best, but that's where you want to be. How exciting is that? This is what's special for me about coaching, that's why I get excited. Every time out, I can set my sights on the top and start climbing.

 Sure, this applies to a lot of things in life. If you are a teacher, you want to be the best educator in your subject, grade level, etc. If you sell cars, you want to be the best salesperson there is. So you bring the excitability. No matter what is going on in your life, you block it out, and you turn the volume up on the good stuff that you do have in your life.

 I won't lie and say my life is close to perfect right now. It's a struggle, knowing what opportunity you need, and working so hard to get, almost having to just wait, put your life on pause until the news comes. It hasn't come, but it will. Either way, when I walk into the gym and pick up that ball, none of that matters. Thinking about your situation constantly distracts you from investing your full energy in what you're doing right now. Not 6 months ago, Coach James Jabir, the Head Coach at Dayton University, told me, "Don't forget to enjoy where you are right now." I really think that's stuck with me more in 2013 than anything.

 So tomorrow, wake up and be excited. Approach every situation and stand out because your excitability is unmatched. Let others be the judge, but if you really love it, you won't have to try to hard. Everyone is famous for something, everyone is known for the things they do and the way they go about doing it. Be the example. Be better than you were yesterday. Be excitable.

 Live in your own reality,

TP