Next Play Mentality

Hola and welcome to The Summit, my weekly newsletter where I share my unfiltered thoughts on navigating the peaks and valleys of adulthood. From health and relationships to productivity and purpose, consider this newsletter a collection of naive wisdom from a 20-something year old summiting the mountain of life.

Today: Next Play Mentality - Naive Wisdom from a 17-Year-Old

Four years ago, I was given the task of writing a speech for my high school graduation. Now back then, as I explained in my article, Being Wrong, I was very naive (remember this is coming from an unemployed wantrepreneur with a little too much optimism). However, I must say, the speech slapped (and I think it still slaps today).

Next Play Mentality. It’s a phrase and a message that I preach all the time. It’s by no means profound, but it is simple and, in my opinion, applicable every day. So today, I want to share my high school graduation speech - yes, I went digging through my old files to find the script. And if you want to imagine what it was like on the day, picture a squeaky 17-year-old saying this as you read along:

“[Irrelevant intro] …

Everyone always asks: ‘what was your biggest learning from high school?’ and today I would like to share with you one of the most valuable lessons that I have learnt. It was the first game of our basketball season this year, when our coach first explained the importance of having a next play mentality.

For the first half of the season, I didn’t even realise how powerful this concept really was, but after spending many quarters warming the bench and cheering my team mates on, the penny dropped.

In the context of basketball our coach explained that when you make a mistake you must not let it bog you down. If you drop your head, you will affect the next three plays and all of a sudden, your one little mistake has turned into four and your team is now down 8 points. Instead, you need to hold your head up high, regroup, focus and move forwards. Just like the analogy shared with us last night [at a chapel service], you cannot drive forward while looking in your rear-view mirror [Unless you’re an Actuary 😅].

Therefore, I believe that the three little words – next play mentality - are so incredibly powerful – and that this idea can be taken away by every single one of us. Because in life, if there is one thing we should take away from Macbeth, it is not his insecurities [THIS WAS AN INSIDE JOKE I SWEAR], but it is that “what’s done cannot be undone”- challenge and change are inevitable. But no matter what has happened, positive or negative, it is about how we respond to what’s thrown at us. – how well we can make that lemonade!

… [some soppy ‘I will miss you’ type stuff] …

And now, Year 12, graduating class of 2020, my friends, I encourage you to have a next play mentality throughout your life, and look forward to your next adventure.

And one last time, thank you for everything, the fun, the laughs and the memories.

It is time to begin our next play”

Now here I am, four years later, re-reading this script and thinking of the countless, literally hundreds of times, I've applied this in my life. I think the message was made pretty clear, so I’ll leave with you a recent example (literally last week):

No Snow: 

I have to admit, I was completely spoilt living and snowboarding in Fernie, British Columbia. I thought powder days and off-piste skiing was the norm. Newsflash, that’s not the quite case here in Queenstown right now. It is safe to say we were pretty disappointed when we got to the mountain and found nothing but icy groomers and only three chairlifts 🫢. It took us about an hour to ski the whole mountain.

But... were we going to sit and around and sulk all day? Hell no. Like what I spoke about in Jerry or Genius, you can still have fun in crap conditions. In our case, this meant spending the whole day in the park - until one of us got injured ☹️. All in all, what could’ve been a lame day of feeling sorry for ourselves ended up pretty exciting because of our next play mentality! Not sure if Fletcher would say the same though 🤣:

In other words, I believe having a next play mentality is all about looking at the other side of the coin when you experience an adulting fail 🫠.

If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to share it with a friend who might also enjoy it; and if you’re the friend, feel free to subscribe here 🙃!

_{As always, if you have any feedback, you can respond to this email! I’d love to hear what you think :)}