Shoot to Make It

Basketball is a sport where the goal of the game is to have your team score more baskets than your opponent’s team. When you make the shot, your team gets points. When you shoot and miss, your team doesn’t get any points. There are shots that are deemed as “good” shots and shots deemed as “bad.” Traditionally, making the “extra pass” means a player passes up an open shot to pass to a teammate who has an even more open shot. This would be considered a “good” shot. There are also times when a player is driving towards the basket and has the defense slide into their way. When this happens, the player with the ball may be double-covered, meaning someone on their team is wide open. If the player opts to shoot the tough shot instead of finding the open teammate, this could be considered a “bad” shot. Sometimes “good” shots miss and sometimes “bad” shots go in the basket. Basketball is not a game of perfection and is more about finding more opportunities for the “good” shots and hoping they go in instead of settling for the “bad” shots. Regardless of if the shot you take is considered a “good” or “bad” shot, the intention behind your shot matters. Are you shooting to score or are you just throwing up a shot?

This mantra can be applied in anything to anything you do in life. If you are shooting to score, you are shooting with intention. You have a clear vision of what you want the result to be. You have a plan for what you need to do to reach your goal. Does this mean the result you seek is guaranteed? Absolutely not. Like in basketball, not every shot you take will succeed. But the intention behind your shot matters. Living your life trying to make your shot is cultivating a life where you are in control. You are in control of your preparation and are the driving force behind your life. You aren’t just “seeing what will happen,” you are aiming to dictate the result on your terms. You are shooting to score.

When you are just throwing up a shot you aren’t the one in control. Living with intention is not what you’re doing, you are living a coin flip. You are hoping that what you have done is enough and that the outcome you want is possible. You are throwing up a shot and seeing what will happen. When you just throw up a shot in life you aren’t particularly invested in the outcome because you accept that you weren’t an active participator in producing the outcome. You are leaving the outcome up to blind chance.

Having intention in your life is the difference between shooting to score and just throwing up a shot. Both are shots that may go in but one is far more likely. One is driven by your active determination and efforts while the other is driven by chance. Live your life filled with clear intentions for what you want to do. Live your life trying to score.