Welcome to another edition of Unshakable, Unbreakable, Unstoppable Stories with Bonnie Jean.
My big dream in high school was to be a super star athlete in all three sports I played: volleyball, basketball and softball.
I could see myself winning games for my teams at the last second, collecting all kinds of awards at the end of each season and having dozens of college scouts offer me scholarships to their schools.
Those dreams sure were exciting. They filled me with hope and gave me a reason to go to practice every day. Too bad I wasn’t a talented enough athlete to be a super star and make those big dreams come true!
I was, however, a good athlete. I had enough talent to be a starter on my volleyball and softball teams all four years, and after playing a lot of minutes coming off the bench on my basketball team my first three years, I earned my way into a starting role by my senior year.
In other words, I had enough talent to be one of the better players on my teams. What I never had enough of, though, was confidence. Especially in basketball.
When I stepped onto a softball field, I believed I was good. I just never believed I was great. But I’ll share more in another episode about my shakable softball confidence and how that limited my softball success. Today I want to focus on my nonexistent basketball confidence.
When I stepped onto a basketball court, I believed I was lousy. I had no confidence at all in my ability to shoot or dribble the basketball, play defense or rebound. And because I kept telling myself I was a lousy basketball player, I never let myself gain the confidence I needed to become good.
Every time I took a shot, I was afraid the other team would block it. Or I was afraid I’d miss the rim entirely and shoot an embarrassing air ball.
Every time I caught a pass or had to dribble, I was afraid the other team would steal it.
Every time I had a player to defend, I was afraid she would dribble by me or shoot the ball and hit a shot in my face.
Every time I went for a rebound, I was afraid someone bigger and stronger would push me out of the way and take the ball from me.
I spent a lot of time being afraid and not a lot of time building my skills so that I wouldn’t have to be afraid to step onto a basketball court any more.
I’ll always have to wonder how good I could have been as a high school basketball player. I lost my chance to be good. Don’t lose yours. If you want something, go for it no matter how scared you are.
Learn what it takes to be good, then practice DOING the skills you learn. The more action you take, the stronger your confidence will become.
To Your Dreams,
Bonnie Jean
P.S. Please don’t wait as long as I did to find your unshakable confidence! No matter how old you are, you can be an unshakable, unbreakable, unstoppable Dream Doer today! To help, I want to give you three FREE gifts, which includes the entire audio book of The Dream Doers and the Summer of Secrets. To claim your FREE gifts, visit TheDreamDoers.com now.
