Archive for February 25th, 2012
Jeremy Lin and Wildly Important Goals
Today, Jeremy Lin is on top of the world. He’s starting NBA games, television coverage, ESPN magazine, invitations to all the top events in New York City, and more fame and status than ever thought possible. It  all adds up to a life that seems perfect. One that hopefully continues for the entire season. One that could end up getting him a very large contract at the end of the NBA season. And perhaps most importantly, one that could end up inspiring millions of people about achieving Wildly Important Goals more than ever before.
The definition of a goal is: (1)Â the result or achievement toward which effort is directed; aim and (2) the terminal point in a race. We all have goals we want to achieve. We all have terminal points and results that we want to happen. This article from the New York Times talks about Lin’s goals and how he decided to work to achieve them.
One of my favorite quotes from the article says, “Jeremy Lin’s rise did not begin, as the world perceived it, with a 25-point explosion at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 4. It began with lonely 9 a.m. workouts in downtown Oakland in the fall of 2010; with shooting drills last summer on a backyard court in Burlingame, Calif.; and with muscle-building sessions at a Menlo Park fitness center.”
Jeremy Lin wanted more than the status quo. He wanted to take advantage of the opportunity when it came. He wanted to work hard when nobody believed in him. Another quote says, “Quite simply, the Jeremy Lin who revived the Knicks, stunned the N.B.A. and charmed the world — the one who is averaging 22.4 points and 8.8 assists as a starter — is not the Jeremy Lin who went undrafted out of Harvard in June 2010. He is not even the same Jeremy Lin who was cut by the Golden State Warriors on Dec. 9.”
In short, Jeremy Lin’s story is one of having a Wildly Important Goal, and then doing everything he could to make it happen. “Beyond the mystique and the mania lies a more basic story — of perseverance, hard work and self-belief.”  If you love what you’re doing and work incessantly to achieve it, then prepare to see it come to pass. If you are able to dream of the impossible, it just might happen.
CLICK HERE to read the article in its entirety.
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