NBA Hall of Fame coach and executive Pat Riley is regarded as one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time. He led the 80s showtime Los Angeles Lakers team that had Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabar to four NBA championships and won one more ring with the MIAMI Heat in 2006, taking his total as a coach to five rings. Riley is known to pep his team up with motivational and inspirational talks and quotes. Hall of Famer and five-time NBA champion Magic Johnson writes in his autobiography – My Life – Earvin Magic Johnson, about one of Riley’s favorite techniques he used with the team to keep their focus – “Peripheral Opponents.”

“He planned all his pregame speeches, writing them out in advance with a blue felt-tipped pen on a blue card. He was continually reading books, looking for quotes that might motivate us. And he loved inspirational one-liners like “No rebounds, no rings.”.

WHAT IS HUSTLE? He once wrote on the blackboard before a game. HUSTLE = HARD WORK? NO! HUSTLE IS A TALENT. Or he’d say, “What do you get when you squeeze an orange? Orange juice. Put anything under pressure and you’ll bring out what’s inside.”

Put anything under pressure and you’ll bring out what’s inside.

This was the sort of thing he liked to say when playoff time came around. That’s when money and pride were on the line, and when even the casual fans started tuning in. And that’s when Pat Riley was at his most intense. “Tell your friends and family to leave you alone,” he’d say. “Tell them you’re unavailable for the next few weeks. You’ve got to give these games your complete concentration. If you want to win that diamond ring, you have to make sacrifices.” There was no music in the locker room at playoff time. He even unplugged the phone in the training room.

He tried to eliminate everything that might disturb our focus. He was especially wary of what he called “peripheral opponents” – which meant anyone who would divert your energy and your concentration away from basketball. This included friends who wanted tickets, agents who came to you with endorsements, and especially the media, who wanted interviews.

Another peripheral opponent was the referees – but only if we allowed them to be. Riley didn’t want to see any of us arguing with an official, because that was a distraction, When a team starts complaining about the calls, it’s usually a sign that they’ve lost their concentration and their desire to win.

In The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles 2, author Steve Pressfield describes the resistance that creatives encounter on their path to greatness. He defines the enemy of creativity which he labels Resistance. Pressfield defined resistance as any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health, or integrity. Or, expressed another way, any act that derives from our higher nature instead of our lower. Any of these will elicit Resistance.

Resistance is Internal

“Resistance seems to come from outside ourselves. We locate it in spouses, jobs, bosses, kids. “Peripheral opponents,” as Pat Riley used to say when he coached the Los Angeles Lakers. Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. Resistance is the enemy within.”

Resistance recruit Allies

“Resistance by definition is self-sabotage. But there’s a parallel peril that must also be guarded against: sabotage by others. When a writer begins to overcome her Resistance—in other words, when she actually starts to write—she may find that those close to her begin acting strange. They may become moody or sullen, they may get sick; they may accuse the awakening writer of “changing,” of “not being the person she was.”

The closer these people are to the awakening writer, the more bizarrely they will act and the more emotion they will put behind their actions. They are trying to sabotage her. The reason is that they are struggling, consciously or unconsciously, against their own Resistance. The awakening writer’s success becomes a reproach to them. If she can beat these demons, why can’t they? Often couples or close friends, even entire families, will enter into tacit compacts whereby each individual pledges (unconsciously) to remain mired in the same slough in which she and all her cronies have become so comfortable. The highest treason a crab can commit is to make a leap for the rim of the bucket.

The highest treason a crab can commit is to make a leap for the rim of the bucket.

The awakening artist must be ruthless, not only with herself but with others. Once you make your break, you can’t turn around for your buddy who catches his trouser leg on the barbed wire. The best thing you can do for that friend (and he’d tell you this himself, if he really is your friend) is to get over the wall and keep motating.

“The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.”

Crab in the Bucket Mentality

The Crab in the Barrel mentality ³ is a metaphor derived from a pattern of behaviour noted in crabs when trapped in a bucket. While anyone Crab could easily escape, its efforts will be undermined by others, ensuring the group’s collective demise. It is a way of thinking that says If I can’t have it, get it or do it, then neither can you, and if you try, then I would go out of my way to bring you down.

A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.- John A. Shedd

In his autobiography, Sam Walton: Made In America ⁴, the founder of Walmart writes about the phenomenon of the peripheral opponent or the close proximity syndrome. Sam wondered:

It was always interesting to me that, except for those folks who worked in our company, our stock got very little support early on from the folks right here in northwest Arkansas. I always had the feeling that the people around here who remembered us when we had one store and three stores, or remembered me when I was president of the Rotary or the Chamber of Commerce, somehow thought we were doing it with mirrors.

They couldn’t help but think we were just lucky, that we could not continue long term to do as well as we have done. I don’t think it was anything peculiar to this part of the country or me or anything like that. I think it must be human nature that when somebody homegrown gets on to something, the folks around them sometimes are the last to recognize it.

I think it must be human nature that when somebody homegrown gets on to something, the folks around them sometimes are the last to recognize it.

Our closest family and friends are usually the first set of peripheral opponents we all have to deal with. They consciously or unconsciously divert our concentration by telling the individual who is working extremely hard to achieve his goals that they are trying too hard or their goal is impossible. They project their fears and insecurity onto the individual through possibility blindness. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” On your path to greatness, you would have to gear up for the internal and external battles you would have to face – the peripheral opponents. Set clear healthy boundaries for these opponents and uphold your values and principles. It is going to be tough dealing with them, but it is part of the price you would have to pay for greatness.

First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. – Mahatma Gandhi

Meditation

• Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt – Transforming Irritation
• Working with Irritation – Familiar tension, a pang of irritation in the stomach. Take a full deep breath and relax. As we navigate our emotions, our choices have a reinforcing effect. Irritation strengthens irritation, patience fortifies patience, so when you notice yourself repeating a pattern of frustration or irritation, connect with your practice and make a conscious choice of which quality you want to grow.

“Every feeling is a field of energy. A pleasant feeling is an energy which can nourish. Irritation is a feeling which can destroy. Under the light of awareness, the energy of irritation can be transformed into and energy which nourishes.” — Nhat Hanh

• Daily Jay with Jay Shetty – The Power of Acknowledgement
• How often do we ignore the humanity of others because we are consumed with ourselves? It is one of the epidemics of our present world – the lack of kindness or politeness.
• Challenge- Recognize and acknowledge people, open yourself up for small interactions with others.

Podcast

• Eckhart Tolle: THESE 3 Habits Are Blocking Your Abundance (& How To Break Free From Them) EP 1463 The School of Greatness
• Awareness is the ability to know what your mind is doing. There are two ways of getting unhappy: Not getting what you want and the other is getting what you want. Happiness start with alignment with the present moment.

All the best in your quest to get better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.