Even-Keeled

Roughly three years ago, while on the brink of winning his first NBA championship, Milwaukee Bucks Superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo gave, in my opinion, one of the most noteworthy post-game interviews in recent sports history. The Greek freak shared that the most important lesson he learned in his professional basketball career, thus far, is to never get too high and never get too low. The message behind this collection of words is so simple and basic, yet after hearing the said statement, I came out of it thinking that I just learned an incredibly valuable lesson.

I know I'm not alone in this when I say that there have been plenty of cases in my life where I over-celebrated in the face of success and felt incredibly devasted at the hands of failure. Looking back, I definitely should have handled said instances differently. Just to make myself clear, I am not implying that one shouldn't feel a certain way after a particular outcome. We're allowed to be happy when we successfully jump a hurdle and feel down when we lose our balance and trip over ourselves. That is perfectly normal as a human being. However, it's safe to say that when pursuing a bigger picture, such ups, and downs shouldn't heavily affect or dictate the pace you go upon your journey.

Over the past few years, I've tried my hardest to apply this learning to my way of living. Dialing in this matter made me realize just how comparable life is to sports and even competitive video games. Runs and momentum don't only exist inside the four lines of a court and on the screen of a monitor. They are also present and play a huge role in our everyday lives. Never getting too high and too low allows you to handle said situations in a collected manner. I learned that this approach leads to consistency in the steps I take on the road to the end goal I have in mind.

There is value in being steady and level-headed. Being too heavily invested on one side of the coin leads to difficulties when everything shifts the very next moment. Being able to handle any storm that comes your way is not a skill that everybody has but a skill everybody should aspire to have. Never getting too high and too low doesn't necessarily mean that you will overcome anything and everything. It just allows you to approach each scenario in a consistent manner no matter what happened the day prior, the context behind the situation, or the possible results that may come after. Standing on a familiar playing field is all you can ask for when facing the challenges in front of you. What happens after that, however, is entirely up to the rest of your abilities.