One thing best basketball players have in common is that they rarely have an off night. They show up and perform consistently every single game.

Anybody can have a great game once in a while. But what do you do when your shot won’t go in, when you’re physically and mentally exhausted from the game that you played last night, or when the opposing team’s defense starts focusing on you?

To sustain the consistency, you need to be able to adapt.

This requires a few things:

  1. Awareness. You need to realize that a change in approach is needed. This may sound obvious, but many people are so used to doing things the same way over and over that it doesn’t even occur to them that they need to adapt.
  2. Courage. You need courage because the new way may not work. You may fail, and you need to be okay with that.
  3. Determination. Choosing to give your best not only directly improves your performance and the chance of success, but it also maximizes your learning.

And, of course, this applies to more than just basketball.