Quick update from Europe

What’s up club!

Hope you all had a great January and started off the new year strong. I love the club we’re building with you guys and want to give you a quick update:

Playing basketball as a pro athlete in Europe is wild.

And just about everything revolves around basketball. You learn pretty quickly that where your attention goes, your energy flows. I would say 80% of my day is scheduled by the team, so most of the time I’m worried about:

• where are practices?

• do I need to pack tonight?

• am I hydrated for the game tomorrow?

It’s the grind.

But for the last 12 years, everything I’ve done has been filtered through the question:

How is this going to help me become a better basketball player?

Everything has to be optimized. And it's a little selfish (I would say) but it's selfish because I want to show up for my family, my team and myself in the best way I can. Sometimes it leads to athletes’ guilt where you feel (or even parents of athletes) guilty and selfish for trying to be the best that they can be.

I hear a lot of athletes talk about this.

You have the money and you have purpose in your craft, but you still feel guilt.

Now I’m navigating an injury during this season. It’s something you never wanna deal with but the immature way to react is “why me?” and to start blaming other people.

Instead, I’ve found the best way to react to an injury is to:

1. reframe your mindset

2. control what you control

3. be task-driven

I’ve been asking, “What am I doing right now to help me be the best that I can be today?

If I know I'm not ready to play a game, then what’s something that will help me prepare TODAY? Right now, it’s doing my rehab and whatever exercises the PT has me doing.

Am I doing everything in my power to give myself the best chance win? It’s not always easy, especially during this last week.

If I could leave anything with you as we head into February, it’s this:

One of the biggest things for high school and college athletes to understand when it comes to confidence, is that confidence comes and goes but lasting confidence comes from good preparation. And the best way to maintain that confidence is by building systems so when:

• anxiety hits

• injuries come out of no where

• and the game is on the line

You know exactly where you’re at and where you’re going.

Keep it up guys,

Faith + Consistency
Elijah

P.S. 
In light of my injury, I dropped my Full Recovery Day Guide below. Enjoy.

P.P.S
We’re dropping a new channel here soon on game film so you can start analyzing it like a pro. Reply with FILM if you’re interested!