Mindfulness Lessons From Michael Jordan
Connect your mind and senses for optimal performance
If you were living under a rock and don’t know who Michael Jordan is, The Last Dance, a ten-part documentary Netflix aired earlier this year can give you an idea of his greatness.
Michael Jordan was a legendary basketball player who played in the Chicago Bulls franchise from 1984 to 1998 (with an 18-month hiatus to play baseball in 1993) and won six NBA championships.
The documentary followed Jordan’s career from start to finish; it was remarkable to understand his way of thinking and learn how he became the greatest basketball player of his era.
Towards the end of the documentary, Mark Vancil, the editor of Rare Air, said something that got stuck into my mind.
“Michael is a mystic. He was never anywhere else. His gift wasn’t that he could jump high, run fast, shoot a basketball. His gift was that he was completely present."
Vancil goes on saying that most people struggle to be present, and “they live in fear because they project the past into the future”; this was not a problem for Jordan.
Vancil mentioned that Michael Jordan would say: “Why would I worry about missing a shot I haven’t even taken yet?”.
Michael Jordan’s power had a name: mindfulness.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the practice of total awareness of the present moment, with intention and without judgement. Moreover, being mindful means that not only we pay attention to our thoughts but also our emotions, surroundings and body sensations.
The popularisation of mindfulness is relatively new. Just for comparison, in 1998, only five articles about mindfulness were published in scientific journals. In 2008, researchers published 82 papers, and in 2018, the number jumped to 842. That’s a massive increase of 16,740% over two decades!
All this research proves how this topic has gotten into people’s mind and how the scientific community wants to understand more.
It sounds like Michael Jordan harnessed this power way before it was “cool”.
The Pain of Not Living in the Present
We spend so much time worrying, planning and being upset about things that happened or didn’t happen, that we forget that the present is the only time we truly have to do something, to create and to live.
Sure, you need to have a sound strategy and plan your life to make your dreams come true; however, it’s in the present that you make things happen. Don’t let the fear of what might happen, paralyse you.
Eckhart Tolle argues that our suffering relates to either past or future events, but rarely to the present. The future is related to anxiety and fear of what’s next, while the past is related to shame and guilt.
Reflect on your life and think about how many times you’ve wished for Friday to arrive, day-dreamed about future vacations or desired the next relationship.
We keep waiting for something incredible to happen instead of enjoying the moment. Staying present gives us the ability to stop worrying about failure — if it hasn’t happened, it doesn’t matter.
Strategies to Achieve Mindfulness
We are constantly interrupted by our devices, and a busy lifestyle seems to be the norm.
In a world full of distractions, mindfulness is a much-desired state of being; yet, it’s hard to clear our minds, focus and immerse ourselves in a single activity. Mindfulness is also known as “flow” and as “the zone”.
There are many strategies to achieve mindfulness. Some people practise meditation, others do yoga, and some listen to music, but many perform rituals to help themselves to get into the zone unconsciously.
We can adapt this strategy to nearly any purpose. For example, I have a little ritual to get myself into the zone when I need focus and concentration to write:
- I get a bottle of water.
- I put my phone away.
- I clear any clutter from my desk.
- I put on my headphones (I don’t listen to music, I just need complete silence).
When I complete this ritual, it’s my like my brain understands that it’s time to stop wandering.
Note that’s not about the actions per se, it’s about the specific sequence. Each step works like a trigger to my brain. Eventually, my brain began to associate this 4-step routine with getting in the zone.
Watching The Last Dance, I noticed that Michael Jordan also had rituals that helped him to harness his power to stay in the present before his games.
I found them ingenious and creative because even surrounded by people and noise, Jordan found a way to clear his mind, concentrate and get into game-mode quickly.
Here are some of his pre-game routines.
- Clear mental clutter. Jordan used to clear his mind by listening to music when going to the games. If you watch The Last Dance documentary, observe how Jordan always had his headphones on.
- Do something with your hands. The locker room was so crowded with people that Jordan couldn’t quiet his mind and concentrate. While he joked around with his teammates, gave interviews and mentally prepared for the game, his way to get into the zone was lacing up his sneakers. So simple, yet so effective. Lacing up his shoes helped him stay grounded and present.
- Be aware of what’s next. Jordan never lost sight of his ultimate goal: win the championship. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a leading researcher on the science of flow, says that knowing where we are in our journey helps us to stay in the present; this awareness keeps us engaged with our purpose.
Achieving mindfulness requires consistency and discipline, but it yields great benefits. If you want to find your flow and do extraordinary work, try to create a ritual that gets your mind into “game mode”.
Get Inspiration from Other Elite Athletes
As mentioned above, creating a ritual to achieve mindfulness is something personal. However, we can benefit from knowing what top performers do to find their flow. See below some of the rituals top athletes of our time do and get inspired.
Michael Phelps — swimmer
Michael Phelps is a swimmer who holds 39 world records and won more Olympics medals than any athlete, accumulating a total of 28 Olympic medals. He is a creature of habits.
Michael is extremely methodical in his pre-race ritual. His coach, Bow Bowman, believed that by creating the right routine, the strength of Phelps mind would improve in every race.
Charles Duhrigg’s book The Power of Habit describes in detail Phelps’ race day ritual. It starts at breakfast and then follows a sequence of activities throughout the day.
Twenty-five minutes before the race, he puts his headphones on and listens to hip hop music. This ritual guarantees that before competing, he is totally in the zone.
Serena Williams — tennis player
Serena Willians, to date, holds more Grand Slam singles titles (23) than any other woman or man; besides, she revolutionalised women’s tennis with her powerful style of play.
People often called Serena’s habits superstition, but I’m confident that all the little things she does before a match help her prepare her mind to the game.
She has a particular way to tie her shoes and even have said: “I’m not losing because I didn’t play well, I lost because I didn’t tie my shoe the right way.”
Also, she said she washes her hands really well so she can grip the racquet tight enough and walks out the court listening to Flashdance “What a Feeling” theme song.
Usain Bolt — sprinter
An eight-time Olympic champion, eleventh-time world champion and triple world record holder, the Jamaican sprinter is considered the fastest man alive.
Bolt’s ritual is not as time-consuming or complicated as other athletes. However, it gave him confidence and prepared his mind for the race.
Before each race, he looks up to the sky and points at it. Bolt is openly religious and used his faith to concentrate and focus on the challenges ahead.
Bonus
In this article, I only used a few examples of Michael Jordan’s strategies to get laser-focused before his games. However, there was another famous pre-game ritual worth mentioning.
Jordan said it had started as a funny joke, but evolved into a good-luck routine before he went to play.
Already in the court, Jordan would put chalk in his hand, and he would then clap his hands in front of Bull’s television broadcaster, Johnny Red Kerr. After a while, Kerr started to play along and would protect himself with gas masks, scarfs and umbrellas.
This hilarious ritual translated Jordan’s personality beautifully. In the words of Andrea Kremer, former ESPN correspondent:
“Michael Jordan was known for his play and for having this larger-than-life persona”.