In my last post, I wrote about the importance of helping your athlete create goals. Specifically, we were talking about goals related to achieving their potential in the game of basketball and how Next Level Impact can help. In this post, I will expand on this concept by focusing on how Next Level Impact will help create that Next Level Commitment Plan to hit your goals.
 
When basketball players are struggling to hit their goals, they often get advice from parents and coaches that they need to work harder. If they are already spending time on their craft, should they spend more time? Should they sweat more, jump higher, run faster? Again, what is your goal?
 
Let’s look at it differently. If I want my lawn to look good, working harder on my lawn may be all it takes. Mowing every week versus every other week.  Pulling weeds, fertilizing & your typical care and maintenance will go a long way. But it still doesn’t match my goal of a beautiful lawn.
 
Should I mow faster? Push harder? Mow more often?  Will any of that matter if I don’t sharpen my mower blades? Or if my tire is flat? Or if the grass I am cutting is just weeds? What if the real issue is that in my mind, the perfect lawn is a botanical garden with flowers and shrubs, with a landscaping waterfall and I have been spending my entire time “working harder” trying to cut the grass.
 
Working hard on the wrong things will not help you achieve your goals. So, knowing your goals is the first thing, as we talked last time, to make sure we are not chasing a dream.
 
Dreams vs Goals
As a kid, I dreamed of playing in the NBA. I also dreamed of being an astronomer who discovered other planets. I dreamed a lot, but none of those dreams came to fruition.
 
Establishing SMART Goals is a great way to move from a dream to a goal. The acronym SMART stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

 
When you set a goal by following this criteria, you know you are on your way to having a crafted goal that is attainable.
 
While Martin Luther King Jr’s, I Have a Dream speech is a powerful, inspiring vision, it was not a goal. It was something to inspire people of what the future could become. It was a way to paint a vision of the future that could be shared and embraced by others. 
 
The Goal is where the work happens. Where the sausage is made if you will. This is the “how you got there” that only shows up in the powerful stories, where the commitment to a goal, followed with actions to support the goal, can then allow you to live out your dream. 
 
A Goal Must Be Attainable
The “A” in the SMART goal is the one that is the most critical, especially in today’s society where EVERY team is a “SELECT” team to make sure the kids feel special. I’m not telling parents to squash your kids' dreams, but you darn well better help them set a goal so they can have a chance at success instead of living with regrets chasing a dream that was impossible to achieve without a plan.
 
I’m not telling you that if your son is 5 '3 " that you can’t have a goal to play in the NBA. But for every Muggsy Bogues, there is the rest of those kids who were cut from their high school team. So, if you do have a far-reaching goal, then you better have a plan to get there. For all of you parents that don’t want to crush little Billy’s dreams, let’s be clear… hope is NOT a plan!
 
With Next Level Impact, we have established a framework to put things in perspective for basketball players looking to achieve their goals. Players and parents need to hear tough conversations that can help put things in perspective if you want to create an achievable plan.
 
Providing a Reality Check
If your goal is to one day be the best 3-point shooter in the NBA, you probably should be the best in college, probably a top one in high school as well, and at the bare minimum the best on your high school team. If you are not, then it doesn’t mean your ultimate goal needs to change, but we probably need to change your focus and create a plan to make you the best on your team and conference first. Let’s hit the first milestone before jumping to our destination. 
 
Statistics don’t lie but they can be used to tell a story. What we have done is establish criteria for standard player stats for typical starters at the high school and various levels of college basketball. We did this for the purpose of providing clarity and understanding of where you stand currently.
 
It’s not to destroy your dreams, but to provide a reality check, establish the right goals and create a plan to achieve those goals. 
 
A Little Honest Self-Reflection
We have each of the players identify their strengths using our iSWOT analysis. This can be tricky for them because to be a strength, it has to be in comparison to others to give you an advantage. If it is the price of entry to get on the court, then it isn’t a strength. It has to set you apart.  You can be the best 3-point shooter on your team, but if you only shoot 30% chances are that is not a strength compared to those in your conference and certainly not at the next level. 
 
Having this honest conversation, in the Player Self-Assessment and putting their stats down on our Stack Up sheet, the gaps between where they are currently and where they want to be rise to the surface. 
 
While this part can be frustrating and even deflating, it is the point where the true journey begins. It is at this point they determine if their goal is actually a goal, or just a dream. At this point, we have their commitment, that they have the WILL and not just the WANT and that will lead to the Next Level Impact Commitment Plan.
 
In the next post, I will write about how this leads to hitting the hardwood for workouts on specific skill areas that will leverage their areas of strength as well as improve those areas of challenge for the player in an effort to provide a well-rounded skill set to help them achieve their goals.
 
Dreams are something you feel, and goals are something you achieve. To hit your goals, it will take commitment to achieve Beyond Today.

To find out more about Next Level Impact, CLICK HERE and register your player for the next event.

At some point in adulthood, you have established goals to help you navigate through life. Whether as part of your job, a member of a volunteer organization, setting up retirement plans or simply setting a budget to buy a new car. We’ve all done it and have seen the value.
 
So why do we not teach our kids to do the same thing?
 
It seems that as parents, we forgot this lesson when it comes to our own kids, especially when they are involved in sports. The last couple of blogs that I have shared, I wrote about parents who are trying to live out their child’s life and the negative impact that can have when the goals of the parent don’t align with the passion of the child.
 
Because of the challenges I have described, you find kids that are not prepared for next level basketball, let alone life. They haven’t had to do an assessment of where their actual strengths reside - not what the parents, friends or wannabe AAU coaches are saying, but looking at the data to see where they stack up.
 
Introducing Next Level Impact
To help high school basketball players understand the importance of goals, understanding strengths, and uncovering what is needed to get to the next level, I partnered with Kobe Wands of the Wands Skills Academy to create Next Level Impact.
 
Next Level Impact takes a foundational leadership development approach to help players define goals by performing an iSWOT to understand where they stack compared to players at the Next Level. We then use those findings to identify areas to improve as well as the sweet spots that we need to leverage and then match that up with specific skill development to enhance their strengths and address the challenges. 
 
Benefits of Next Level Impact
The result of going through Next Level Impact will be that your player has moved from having a DREAM to having a GOAL. From HOPING to get to the Next Level to having a PLAN to get to the Next Level.
 
When they leave this 3-hour session they will have:

• Defined realistic Goals
• Identified their Strengths & Challenges as a player
• Created areas of focus based upon their readiness to hit their goal(s) based upon statistical comparison of Next Level players
• Hit the court to work through drills in those focus areas
• Created a customized Next Level Workout Plan to grow their game

• Established a Next Level Commitment Plan to help them achieve their goals

 
Establishing the Next Level Impact Process
The basic skills or critical thinking, creating a goal, and building a plan are not taught in school. Sadly, as parents who are trying our best to help our kids, we are not teaching them to do this at home either. Then we wonder why they struggle to do things on their own.
 
That’s why we created Next Level Impact. Establish a goal setting process using self-reflection and some tough talk to make sure they understand their starting point. There is no one-way ticket to Easy Street. You can’t ask Siri to tell you how to get there or find it on Tik Tok.
 
It takes work to earn things in life. But more than work, it requires you to work on the right things, in the right way, at the right time to make sure you are working towards the right goal for YOU!
 
If you have a player that has dreams of playing at the Next Level, then you need to reach out and let us help them create their plan - not your plan, not the other guy’s plan, but the plan that is customized for them.
 
Having a dream won’t get you to the Next Level. Having hope won’t get you there either. But creating the right GOAL and executing the right PLAN are the steps for your player to get to the Next Level, Beyond Today.

To find out more about Next Level Impact, CLICK HERE and register your player for the next event or DM me to start a conversation.