Life Lessons from College Basketball

Okay, so we watch our fair share of sports here in the Johnson household. I mean, gotta have a mix with all the reality TV and Food Network, not to mention the HGTV remodels.

Football, baseball, basketball. All of the above. And we like college basketball, namely the BYU Cougars. This past weekend, BYU was playing Gonzaga on their home court. They had a 22-game winning streak at home, and were ranked #3 in the nation.

BYU won 73-70.

Now, I don't really care who wins as much as my husband. I mean, I'm glad if they do, but I won't die if they don't. It's not like Survivor or anything. *wink*

But BYU won, and the interview afterward I found some inspiration for writing, and for pretty much anything in life.

Here's one article in Sports Illustrated. And one in The Deseret News.

BYU's Kyle Collinsworth, left, and Gonzaga's Kyle Wiltjer go after a loose ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015, in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)

Kyle Collinsworth is a junior guard, and scored 20 points in Saturday's game. In his interview, he said, "We didn’t play that well offensively. We missed a lot of shots and had key turnovers... But we just stuck with it and battled all 40 minutes."

I think that's AWESOME.

Even if we're doing very well in something, we can stick with it and battle through until the end. Sometimes that's 40 minutes, and sometimes that's 4 months, or 4 years, or longer.

He went on to say, "I tried to do everything I could to get that ball and put it back in."

I LOVE THAT.

He isn't a magician. And he doesn't have a magic formula for success. He works hard. Obviously, the team practices, and he practices, and he puts in the time to be in good physical shape, etc.

But he's not a wizard. All he does is do everything he can to get the ball and put it in the basket.

I think that's great advice for anyone who's working toward a goal, be it a weight-loss goal, a writing goal, or increasing your ACT score. It works for almost anything in life!

Do everything you can to get better and take the next shot.

Seen or read anything inspirational lately?

When Everything Isn't Coming Up Roses...

Okay, so my husband is a huge fan of sports. Football, basketball, hockey, baseball, golf, even bowling. But especially football. So a few weeks ago, he's reading this book about Vince Lombardi and we're sitting at my son's eighth grade recreational league basketball game, where they're in the race for first.

And I say, "I don't like how competitive sports are. It makes me nervous."

And he gets all giddy, and he's like, "I just read a quote on that. Here," and hands me the book.

Now, I don't read for educational purposes, but I read the passage from the Vince Lombardi book. I don't really remember what it said, but the gist was that competition makes us into men. (Or something.)

So as always, I relate this experience to my life. And right now, I'm doing the publishing thing, so that's where my mind goes.

I think we all know that just because someone has an agent, or a book deal, or whatever, doesn't mean they won't experience setbacks. Loss. Frustration. And/or disappointment.

Oh, the disappointment.

So I've had a rough couple of months, and a few weeks later, I'm sitting at the championship basketball game for my son, and they win. There's this big celebration, and parents are taking pictures, and my eyes are roaming this ghetto junior high gym, and what do I see?

A quote by Vince Lombardi:
I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.

And I thought, "YES! I am exhausted on the publishing field of battle. I have been victorious in the past. Can this be my finest hour? Can I be victorious again?"

I honestly don't know. But I'm determined to "work my heart out in a good cause" and see where it takes me.

I went home, and I'm taking these:

Some of you know my daughter did a lemonade stand for Valentine's Day.
We used 6 lemons to make the 1 cup of juice needed for the lemonade. I cut, she squeezed.

And I'm trying to make this:

This is my daughter's lemonade stand. I made a simple syrup to make that pink lemonade. It was delicious! And my favorite part of her sign? The happy face. It makes me smile every time.

Because sometimes life and publishing seems to throw nothing but lemons. We may feel like we're fighting the good fight. We're exhausted on the field of battle. And there's still only lemons.

There are a thousand reasons to be sour. But by taking a simple syrup, you can make that sour into something delicious.

And that's what I'm going to do.

So. Are you making lemonade right now? Fighting the good fight? Or are you just exhausted?

Also, do you like how I went from sports, to Vince Lombardi quotes, to publishing, to lemonade? Because that was an epic chain of thought. Ha!