April 09, 2021   |   Tagged Coaching,

NBC Basketball Calls a Time-out to consider what matters most in life

“Time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters.”

At NBC Basketball Camps we like to call time-outs in the game of life to reassess and to refocus. This month's time-out is on the importance of time. Most likely, time has some influence on your life right now. Frequently, we feel there is not enough—time for sleep, to get organized, to enjoy life, to work on our skills. Time can be “wasted” by which we mean something is lost in the result. Sadly, recognizing we wasted time usually comes after the fact. In the 1500s, time was personally depicted as an aging bald man with a scythe (a tool used to harvest grain) and an hour glass, an image that still haunts us today. The hour glass is running out and what have we achieved? Yet the repercussions of too much stress and pressure to become and to achieve actually results in less achievement, potential injury and emotional, relational and spiritual strain.

This month, pause to consider how you spend your time. Take a time-out to step away from your routine and contemplate the following:

• Are the activities I am doing every day building the person I desire to be 5 years from now?
• Is the pace of my life interfering with my joy and quality of life?
• Do I create time for what matters most?
• How do I know what matters most?

How to Know What Matters Most

Picture your life like a big field and your daily habits and activities are the seeds. Daily you plant and sow. Think of your day and the time you spend. An athlete who follows a daily disciplined regiment of skill work, shooting, jump training and conditioning is preparing for a much different future than a person who talks on his cell phone while watching TV in the afternoon. Having wisdom is the ability to know what you are sowing and reaping. St. Augustine believed our past gives us wisdom and memories, our present makes us mindful and our future give us direction. Time is now, yesterday and tomorrow. What have you sown, what are you sowing and what will you be reaping?

Wisdom about Time

1. Time is precious. How we spend our time determines who we are. Most student athletes have 3-5 hours per day to spend on same activity of their choice. Consider that we use the words waste and spend with time. How you invest your time matters.

2. Time is short. Almost everyone who looks back on his/her life as an elderly person grieves that time is short. Scripture says, “Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Wisdom comes from understanding that each day is a gift and goes by quickly.
Time is wasted by idleness. What is idleness? It is defined as the refusal to do necessary work. It is laziness. We throw our talent and our future away through idleness.

3. Time is wasted by wrong pursuits. When we focus our energy on the empty, worthless activities we produce nothing, we gain poverty. Poverty can come in different forms the worst being poverty of spirit. Mother Theresa who worked with the extreme poor who materially had nothing, said the USA was the most poverty stricken of all countries because of our poverty of spirit. We have money but no joy. We have homes but no laughter and delight in one another.

4. Your habits influence how you spend your time. You can begin right now to sow different seeds and plant a new life. Now is the time to make a change. Make a plan. We get ourselves into trouble with time when we react to life rather than making intentional goals and ways to use our time wisely. The great athlete prepares and plans. Time spent planning is time well spent.

About NBC Basketball Camps

NBC Camps is all about helping athletes become better players and better people. We aspire for all our campers to leave camp with stronger skills, confidence, mental toughness, and deeper love for life. Find out more about NBC Camps.