May 11, 2015
While I was exercising one day in the gym, I noticed a young man playing basketball by himself. From a talent point of view, he was dreadful. He made few baskets, that is, he had trouble getting the ball to go into the basket. Sometimes he could not reach the basket from the three-point line. He was not a small child. He was a teen, at least, with terrible shooting form as well. He just kept playing. I realized that he was at “play,” not at “performance.” If he were trying to perform well, that is successfully get the ball into the basket most of the time, he would have been miserable and probably given up, gone home feeling badly about himself, a failure, a loser. But he was simply at play, which requires no goal of success. Basketball in itself was enough for him to do. I will try to keep that in mind the next time I am at something and am feeling miserable. What was my motive in the first place? I will try it with running.