What's important now?

Becoming the best, winning championships, and learning to stay in the moment...

"From the beginning, I wanted to be the best. I had a constant craving, a yearning, to improve and be the best."

Kobe Bryant

In the beginning, becoming the best was the most important thing.

After several years of rising through the league and becoming one of the NBA’s most talented players, his focus shifted and something else became more important.

"I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot."

Kobe Bryant

Over the course of his 20 year career, he achieved almost everything he set out to do.

• 5x NBA Champion

• 2 Olympic Gold Medalist

• 18x NBA All Star

• And so much more

One of the things Kobe did better than anyone else was focus. He never lost sight of what was most important and he directed all of his intensity toward that singular purpose.

When he retired, his priorities shifted but his focus remained the same.

Just weeks before Kobe passed away he received an invitation from a reporter at ESPN to participate in a special feature about the Los Angeles Lakers. 

Kobe wrote back and said, “Can’t right now. My girls are keeping me busy. Hit me up in a couple of weeks.”

In the beginning, becoming the best was the most important thing.

Later, winning was the most important thing.

Then family became the most important.

But one thing never changed—when Kobe decided something was the priority, he moved everything else to the side and gave his all to the most important thing in the moment.

If you do a quick scan of some of the most successful people you know, you’ll find this trait appears somewhere, or everywhere throughout their journey. They’re able to determine what the most important thing is and then direct their energy, attention, and resources toward it.

You can do this too with the help of one simple question—what’s important now?

Why ask this question?

The value of this question comes from its ability to help you cut through the noise and determine what you need to do right now. It brings clarity and demands you to stay present in the moment. Have you ever made it to the end of a busy day and thought, “what did I actually accomplish today?” Everyone is busy—or at least that’s become the default so many people live in. But a much smaller percentage of those people are truly working on the most important things. Let this question be a compass you pull out regularly to help you stay oriented and always moving in the right direction.

WIN—yes, it’s an acronym, and it’s what Nick Saban does all the time

The question, “what’s important now” actually comes from Nick Saban. With 7 national championships, he is the single most successful coach in college football history. And he’s still coaching so that number will likely continue to grow.

Early in his career, Saban coached at Michigan State where he became friends with a psychiatrist named Dr. Lionel Rosen. This friendship became the birth of what Saban has coined, “the process.” Think of it like a mental model, a way of thinking that becomes so ingrained in you that it’s how you see the world, it guides all of your actions. 

Together, they realized the average football play lasts roughly seven seconds. Instead of focusing on the scoreboard, the fans, the opposing team, or anything else, Saban told his players all they needed to do was focus on the next 7 seconds.

What’s important NOW?

This 7 seconds that’s about to take place.

“There’s probably one really memorable game that changed the whole dynamics of the psychological approach we use to motivate teams, and it happened when we played at Ohio State in 1998. They had been number one all the way through, and we were 4-5 and not a very good team. We decided to use the approach that we are not going to focus on the outcome. We were just going to focus on the process of what it took to play the best football you could play — which was to focus on that particular play as if it had a history and life of its own.”

Nick Saban

I love that last line—”as if it had a history of its own.”

“Now” can mean different things

The “now” can mean this exact moment in time. It can also mean this phase of life. Regardless of how you look at it, the question refocuses your attention.

Now, might mean the meeting you are in.

Now, might mean having a newborn at home.

Now, might mean high school.

Think about what now means to you and ask yourself, what’s important now?