Do Hard Things

This second week of rehab has been terrible.

The shock of not being able to practice has gone away and I simply miss being on the court with my teammates.

The injured reality has fully set in.

Each day has become boring and mentally exhausting. No hooper enjoys spending day after day in the weight room with zero on court work. The weight room is a lab to improve your body so that you can perform better on the court, so when you take away the court…

It changes from lab to prison.

I know this perspective sounds dramatic, but as a hooper you know the exact experience I am talking about.

In spite of this, I had to find a way to reframe my circumstance and continue to press forward.

The weight room and my rehab program is a huge piece in how I am going to make my comeback.

Let’s get into how I mentally navigated this experience.

Before we do, I want to remind you to check out the Atypical “Principles” Collection merch, sizes are selling out faster than expected and I am not sure when the next restock will be so get yours quick ——> LIVE ATYPICAL WEBSITE.

Why I Do This:

I love getting these messages from hoopers in the Atypical Community.

Nothing makes me happier than hearing about guys taking steps to level up their systems and routines early in their playing career.

I know if I would have made some of these adjustments when I was younger that I could have saved myself from many difficult moments in my relationship with basketball.

Pregame journaling and journaling in general not only helps performance, but is a repetition in improving your mental and emotional awareness.

I see so many athletes struggling with the mental side of basketball because they haven’t taken the necessary steps to frame their relationship and experience with the game.

This is cool to see an athlete taking that step.

Good stuff.

Thoughts From This Week

Find Your Meaning

Throughout this week, I kept joking with my teammates when I would see them after practice (I was in the weight room while they were on the court) that I “hate my life” while being imprisoned to the weight room.

Probably not a productive joke and it was probably unintentionally confirming a negative thought pattern, but still one of my teammates responded with a great question:

“You worked so hard this whole season, how could you lose your motivation now?”

I am someone that even while clowning around will really listen to the motivation and intentions behind the interactions.

His question ripped a hole in my perspective.

I was choosing to look at my situation completely wrong.

When things get shitty, the key is to remove your mind from the “shitty-ness” and search for meaning.

Ask questions like,

“How can this move me?”

“What is the bigger picture?”

Even,

“How is this necessary?”

My teammate’s question redirected me to these questions.

There was a perspective of my circumstance that, if I could find it, would be empowering.

I settled on this:

My injury was testing how much I cared about the game and every moment, every day that I showed up to grind out my rehab I was reaffirming my love for the game and my commitment to my journey.

When I look at it from this perspective, I cannot help but feel more motivated to show up for myself and for my love of basketball.

Now before every rehab session and tedious weight room workout, I think to myself,

“I really do love this basketball stuff”.

My days started to feel different in a good way.

I smiled more.

My mind was occupied by the love of the game rather than the frustration of my circumstance.

Reality altering.

Shifting your perspective is not an easy task, but it can be the catalyst that provides fuel for your climb out of a tough moment.

The ability to remove yourself from the emotions of a tough moment, shift your perspective, and come back empowered is a skill.

Skills must be a daily practice.

You can do this in your day to day on a much smaller scale.

Maybe it is doing the dishes or maybe it is doing some annoying math homework, whatever it is, search for the bigger picture, the meaning, so that you will be prepared for those moments when life really tests you.

Resilience as a Muscle

I’ve been thinking a lot about why this injury has been uncharacteristically harder for me to handle than some previous ones.

The last month before this injury, I had been rolling both on the court and in my personal life.

Everything felt dialed, smooth and almost easy.

Maybe easy is not the right word, but more so “unresisted” (not sure if this is a word haha).

Now with this injury, it feels like a huge wave of resistance is crashing against me even if its not objectively that huge.

Upon reflecting, I believe that it felt overwhelming due to my lack of cultivating resistance in my own training and systems.

On our journey, we need to train our resilience.

This does not mean making things difficult for no reason, but it does mean that we need to be conscious in our cultivation of resistance.

The “grit” it takes to do difficult things is a skill in the same way having perspective is a skill.

If left unpracticed, we become vulnerable to a big uptick in “difficult”.

My takeaway from the emotions of this setback is this:

I must find ways to actively expose myself to difficult tasks and when I do, I need to knock them out the first chance I get.

Make doing the difficult things first your reflex.

For me, cooking is incredibly difficult.

In response, I will cook more meals no matter how I feel.

For me, extra ball-handling work is difficult, I hate doing it.

In response, I will come 10 minutes early to knock this out.

These two direct action items will be the start of how I will exercise my resilience muscle more frequently.

This mindset is the same reason that millions of people have started taking ice baths in the morning before they start their day.

It is an attitude switch.

Do the hard things first, and your life won’t feel as overwhelming when it gets difficult.

You are used to conquering difficult.

You have trained your resilience muscle.

This Weeks YouTube Drop:

In this video, I show you the contrast between the disappointment of my injury and the excitement of the Atypical “Principles” Collection Drop.

I also show my development as business owner and a basketball player.

I am working to become the best version of myself and I hope it inspires you to do the same.

I’ll Leave You With This:

Tough moments are inevitable.

The mindset we approach them with is up to us.

Train your resilience and develop your skill of perspective and I promise you tough moments will become less intense.

Your growth is a marathon and in a marathon a whole lot of things will try and derail your progress.

Improve in your ability to rise above and your marathon results will improve.

Cheers to another week of learning to Live Atypical,

Love you guys,

Trey