A few Sundays ago, I was on my way to play pickup basketball with some of my boys when my friend Tyler jokingly said something profound.
"The best time to miss a shot is in pickup. Go 'head and get 'em out of your system now."
When nobody's keeping score (so to speak), nobody's in harm's way, or the stakes are low, you're playing pickup. Make quick decisions, take risks, and get the misses out of your system.
Here's how you win when you get those misses out:
You keep the stress off your body. Doing quantum analysis on which color pants to buy, what to have for dinner, or what to say to someone will have you clamped up with anxiety, doubt, and all the rest. I don't know about y'all, but I'm on a mission to keep that cortisol off me.
School gym, not game 7: Remind yourself that the stakes are low.
You save your time and energy for more important things. Like actual high-stakes decisions or relationships with your people. Energy doesn't grow on trees; don't blow it on decisions you could make for less.
Don't think, just shoot: Make decisions and take action quickly by flipping a coin, having a friend decide, or going with your first mind.
You get comfortable taking risks without fear. And that's when you learn and grow. On Sundays, shooting risky three-point shots teaches me my range ain't what I thought it was. On Saturdays, drilling dowel holes in a woodworking project–before practicing for real–teaches me that I should be using a jig. Regardless of the day, trying new things when the stakes are low helps you develop a growth mindset and rock-solid mental fortitude.
Pickup is the time for experimentation: Go out on a limb. Try that next step when you don't think you're ready for it. When you mess up or it ain't working, learn from your mistakes and run it back.
No doubt, it can feel like there's real heat in pickup when that OG starts yelling at you to take better shots, but there's nothing substantive on the line. No bread, no all-star selections, no prospect of you getting looked at to go to the next level. None of that. You're in the gym with your high school friends and some randoms trying to get a sweat in.
Sometimes, we feel the same heat on the day-to-day. Our inner selves try to convince us every little thing we do or say is DefCon Level Two. No doubt, little things, compounded over time, can make that kind of difference. But what's missing is mutability and grace.
Mutability means your and others' personalities, feelings, and situations can change. Grace allows us and others to not be as bad as our worst mistake. Together, they mean that one little thing we say or do doesn't tell the whole story and isn't the end all be all.
Here are some situations where you might think you're in a playoff game, but you're really playing pickup:
When the stakes are low, when the cost is negligible, and when you'll get another shot at the title, just get out there and let it fly.
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