There's something to be said about picking up what a younger version of yourself started. It can certainly be helpful for momentum – sure – but what is special about it?
Today we’re calling on another tool in the hoop bag to help us explain something: alley-oops.
An oop or a lob (I’ll use these interchangeably) is a passing technique in basketball where one player throws the ball in the air, and another player jumps up to catch and score it before touching the ground again.
Continuing on a path of growth or development, like picking up an instrument or starting to write again, is like throwing yourself an oop.
In hoop, a regular lay(up) or even a lob to a teammate is more common than a player ooping it to themselves.
With personal growth, it's more conventional to see something through on the first go or pick it up and quit. Rarely do we pick something up, drop it, and come back to complete it months or years later.
In hoop, you either planned on lobbing it to yourself or you made a split-second decision to make a play. Running a play requires clarity on what the elements of the play are and why it will work, as well as discipline to stick to the plan. But a lot of basketball is split-second decisions; it takes a level of talent to recognize your defender is standing straight up, and there’s no one in the lane to stop you from throwing it off the glass to yourself.
Similarly, you might have planned on starting something back up later; you could have known you were postponing or starting to learn that new thing in the summer when you have more time on your plate. On the other hand, you could also be successful whimsically picking up that saxophone you started playing in middle school if you’re musically inclined.
There's a juicy middle, if you will. The awe of a “self-oop” is not so much in the passing or the actual finish – the best self-lobs aren't necessarily the best dunks – it's the time between release and finish that creates the suspense.
Self-development lobs are the same way because you finished the lob. You did something with the pass. You returned. Who cares if you were distracted or lost between attempts? You came back. That's perseverance. There are touch points that connect the islands of attempts and thus create your journey.
In hoop, a self-lob is an assist to yourself. You pass the ball to yourself to score.
In self-development, old you provides the foundation for new you to work with. The morning I drafted this piece, I found myself at my kitchen table, on my laptop, on 750 words dot com, all because of the work that old Jared put into getting nice at writing consistently. While there are things I've learned that unconsciously went into how to start writing again, what's remarkable is that so many were conscious.
I decided to go to the kitchen table instead of my desk, bed, or couch because 1) my desk is where I do other work and also where I write the worst 2) my bed is where I sleep and entertain 3) My friend Dave was sleeping on the couch. I remember learning about different zones for doing different tasks while working at home from Marissa's Remotely Interesting Remote Work newsletter. Good job, old Jared.
Next, I'm on my personal laptop as opposed to the pad, work computer, or the phone because old Jared has written the fastest on this type of Macbook keyboard. Good job, old Jared.
Lastly, I'm on 750 words dot com because I've seen this joint somewhere. Old Jared might have read it in an article or seen it in a youtube video, but most importantly, he kept it tucked in his brain in a way that allowed me to find it with ease this morning. Either the night before I drafted this piece when envisioning how this morning could go, 8 am on the morning I drafted it when I was hopping on the bike for a morning spin, or after I consciously decided to grab my personal computer and sit down at the kitchen table, I remembered I signed up for this thing called 750 words that sends a daily email reminder to write at the length of 750 words. I'd like to think that recall, combined with a focus cultivated from morning sunshine, exercise (old Jared has been known he can't have a bad day with a morning bike ride), and some water on my back, allowed me to ignore the open youtube video explaining why the Fuji xt30 is better than the Fuji X100V, hit search for '750 words daily writing challenge', log in, and get cracking.
In hoop, this is really the only legal way to do it. In self-development, the only real way you're getting back into something you started years ago is through yourself. You have to be the catalyst and the driver.
Teammate-to-teammate lobs are cool, for sure. There have been entire teams built around that play. But the electric players make it happen for themselves. Throw yourself more lobs by starting more things (seriously, of course) and finish that joint on the other end.
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