Lessons in the Mamba Mentality

I spent hours of my life studying Kobe Bryant. Here are 3 maxims I am taking away from this:

Your body talks. Listen. 

"I never had a set routine, an ironclad formula that I practiced night after night. I listened to my body and let it inform my warmup, because there are always variables. If I felt the need to shoot extra jumpers, I’d shoot more. If I felt the need to meditate, I’d meditate. If I felt the need to stretch for a longer duration, I’d stretch. And if I felt the need to rest, I’d sleep. I always listened to my body. That’s the best advice I can give: listen to your body, and warm up with purpose.” (Kobe Bryant, The Mamba Mentality)

This maxim ties in ideas I have learned from Kobe Bryant and Claude Shannon. Look, I never expected to see those two side by side either but here we are. 

Kobe highlighted the importance of listening to his body in his warmup routines, letting his body dictate how he warmed up. How he cared for himself. 

But it was deeper than that. 

He listened to his instinct of going from high school to the NBA. The instinct to become the best. The instinct to pivot his purpose in year 10 when Shaq left from proving himself to leaving an impact. A legacy. To retire when he could still put up 60 before pursuing his purpose of impacting people. To help people pursue their dreams with the help of his storytelling. 

Claude? Claude listened honored his disinterests as much as his interests. If he lost interest, he would move on. But when it gripped him, he allowed it to consume him. Like Kobe, he spent years refining his craft in the background—doing the work people couldn’t see, ushering in an age where you can read this and I can transmit it to you.  

When you listen to your body, when you trust your instinct, you can work harder than you ever would have thought possible but the tools will feel light in your hand. You will awake with purpose and prioritize the game instead of the escape. 

"If you really want to be great at something, you have to truly care about it. If you want to be great in a particular area, you have to obsess over it. A lot of people say they want to be great, but they’re not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve greatness. They have other concerns, whether important or not, and they spread themselves out. That’s totally fine. After all, greatness is not for everybody." (Kobe Bryant, The Mamba Mentality)

We Talkin’ about Practice

"...if I wanted to implement something new into my game, I’d see it and try incorporating it immediately. I wasn’t scared of missing, looking bad, or being embarrassed. That’s because I always kept the end result, the long game, in my mind." (Kobe Bryant, The Mamba Mentality)

Alex Hormozi defines focus as your ability to ignore distractions. 

Kobe demonstrated focus by picking a skill from a legend, and working it until he could do it as well as who he was studying—or better. If he instead watched one legend, worked on their skill for a little bit, found another legend, worked on that skill for a little bit, and endlessly repeated this cycle, I’m sure Kobe would have still been good but not the athlete that he became. 

He focused on one skill at a time to get better and did enough repetitions to make the move that he was practicing second nature.

Practice is the necessary work but for most of us, it is the work that goes unseen. 

Make it the work that you can’t be beat at. 

Practice is—in short—your declaration of intent. 

Don’t mistake information consumption as practice. This is an easy trap to fall prey to in the age of the internet. Watching hours of YouTube videos with boundless amounts of information is only useful if you are studying and acting on the information that you are consuming. 

"From a young age—a very young age—I devoured film and watched everything I could get my hands on. It was always fun to me. Some people, after all, enjoy looking at a watch; others are happier figuring out how the watch works." (Kobe Bryant, The Mamba Mentality)

Let your inner child loose. 

"I was curious. I wanted to improve, learn, and fill my head with the history of the game. No matter who I was with—a coach, hall of famer, teammate—and no matter the situation—game, practice, vacation—I would fire away with question after question." (Kobe Bryant, The Mamba Mentality)

"It was always fun to watch, study, and ask the most important question: Why?" (Kobe Bryant, The Mamba Mentality)

Children have a lust for life that many adults lose somewhere in their journey. For some, it is stripped from us in our youth. For others, once the realities of adulthood posterize us with reality. 

Awareness of this is key to overcoming it. 

The importance of this was so great to Kobe that a majority of his book was dedicated to highlighting what other players did well. 

Always ask why. Be a student of whatever game you are trying to play. Learn from those who have come before you. Take their tricks and master them. Make them your own. A pupil that is able to master the best elements of their masters can surpass them. 

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. It is through asking questions and deeply exploring your interests with childlike curiosity that you are able to accomplish the greatest feats. 

"I revere the players who made the game what it is, and cherish the chances I had to pick their brains. Anything that I was seeing or going to see, any type of defense or offense or player or team—they had already encountered years before. I talked with them to learn how to deal with those challenges. After all, why reinvent the wheel when you can just talk to the wheels that were created before? Magic Johnson was a special player, and I learned a lot of especially important lessons from his game." (Kobe Bryant, The Mamba Mentality)

“We are all born children. The trick is to remain one.” (David Ogilvy)

“I was more motivated by curiosity... I just wondered how things were put together. Or what laws or rules govern a situation... Mainly because I wanted to know myself.” (A Mind at Play)