Have you heard of North Carolina State Men’s Basketball Coach, Jim Valvano? His story is the epitome of faith, belief, purpose, and optimism.
When Jimmy Valvano was a child, he believed he was going to be a head coach. He had faith he would one day lead a team to a national championship. He had a defined purpose and unshakable optimism in this belief before he even graduated high school.
One day, young Jimmy shared this ambition with his father. He was very clear in his belief. He said, “Dad, one day I am going to be a head basketball coach for a division one program.” Jimmy didn’t stop there. He continued, “I am going to lead a team to the National Title.” That is a huge goal for a 15- or 16-year-old kid from New York with no real connection to big time basketball or professional coaching.
Now his dad could have responded in a multitude of ways. He could have ignored him or simply said, “That’s great son.” He could have delivered a cold dose of reality and stated, “That is quite a dream and I hope you achieve it. But let’s also have a more realistic goal. It is almost impossible to make it as a division one coach, let alone win a National Championship.” Mr. Valvano took neither of those routes. What he did cemented something in Jimmy’s mind that never left.
A day or so after his son stated his dream, Mr. Valvano disappeared into his bedroom for a quick minute. He then called for his son to come into the room. Here is how Mr. Valvano responded, “See that suitcase? I’m packed. When you play and win the National Championship, I’m going to be there. My bags are already packed.” I get a little misty eyed each time I read this story.
Jim Valvano went on to play Division I basketball at Rutgers. He eventually became a head coach at North Carolina State and went on to lead the North Carolina State Wolfpack to the 1982 – 1983 Men’s College Basketball National Championship, as the #6 seed.
Talk about faith, belief, purpose, and optimism! No matter what our beliefs are or how strong our faith is, we might not reach the pinnacle of our profession. Does that make us a failure? Hardly! The process of becoming must be at the heart of our inner core development.
Jimmy V. is well known for his courageous battle against cancer. Almost everyone has heard his heroic speech as he was nearing his death at the ESPN ESPY awards in 1993. On stage he shared his faith, his optimism about life and humanity. This speech was not about basketball or winning a championship. This speech was about staring down and facing his own mortality. Our own mortality is something we all must process and face. Valvano stated, “Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.”
Cancer could not touch his inner core. He spent too much time investing in himself so he could help others. His inner core was too strong, too well developed for his foundation to crack.
Coach Valvano never forgot who helped him realize the strength of a strong inner core. He said, “my father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.” The power of belief. The power of purpose. The investment in optimism. The building blocks of a strong inner core rooted in optimism and belief.
Next Steps
To live an optimized life, we must invest in all three of our trainable skills. We can train our body, we can train our craft, and we can train our mind (Gervais, 2023). While most of us know the value of training our body and our craft, few tap into the power of training our mind. Strengthening the mind sharpens our ability to train our body and our craft. Training the mind is centered on leveraging our ability to “think well.” What is encouraging, is research indicates the ability to think well is a learnable, trainable, and improvable skill.
At the heart of training the mind is optimizing for optimism. Optimism is at the root of mental strength and mental toughness. Leadership expert Dr. Michael Gervais defines optimism as the belief our next action will improve our situation (Gervais, 2023). If we want to live an optimized life, investing and developing the skill of optimism will drive our belief (our faith) that tomorrow will be better than today.
The essence of faith and optimism is defined beautifully by Saint Augustine, “Faith is to see what you do not believe. The reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”
The foundational piece of this training is to generate the evidence of belief through your investment in the three skills (body, craft, mind). The evidence you generate as you grow each of these skills will serve as a strong indicator that you can do difficult things. Propelling your sense of optimism and belief to transform a situation.
The power of belief drives us to push past our limits. If you are religious, a faith in a higher power drives you to be the best version of yourself and to serve others. Your purpose might be directly connected to your faith, although it doesn’t have to be. Your purpose might be something that drives you to help your family or your community. Optimism is so important because it is the cornerstone of mental toughness.
Do you believe your next decision will lead to a positive outcome? Have you generated the evidence to suggest you have the skills to turn the tide? It doesn’t happen by accident.
References
Holiday, R. (2020). You Can Give Them This Gift. The Daily Dad.
Gervais, M. (2023). Finding Your Best Course on Optimism. Finding Mastery.
