Doubt...

Doubt is part of the process.

You will doubt yourself and your abilities. We all do. And just like wanting to quit, doubt is not a sign that you’re failing. It’s a sign that you’re going after something that matters. Don’t feel bad because you’re doubting yourself. You’re already in the fight. That’s hard enough.

Doubt shows up when you’re chasing something you’re not sure you can reach. Before you get the job. Before you win the medal. Before you hold up the championship trophy. Somewhere along the way, the voice will come. Are you good enough? Smart enough? Strong enough? Nice enough? Mean enough? Just enough? Are you enough at all?

That voice is coming for all of us. The question is what you do when it shows up.

My biggest moment of doubt came in 2012. We had played 82 games to get our seed. We were finally ready to start our championship run. Game 1 of the second round was on Mother’s Day. My wife and I had just had our first son, and it was her first Mother’s Day. And in that game, I tore my groin. Afterwards I doubted everything. I doubted the process. I felt stupid for believing. I had come all this way, sacrificed everything, just to tear my groin and not be able to play. And the rounds only get tougher from there. My team was going to have to survive for three weeks without me, and even when I came back, I wasn’t going to be 100%. If we had any chance of winning a championship, I was going to have to play hurt. You need to be at full strength to win a championship and I wasn’t going to be. That’s the moment doubt fully took over. I sat with that for days.

One of my favorite things to do was watch the NBA championship DVDs they release every year. The ones that take you behind the scenes of every title run. I started watching them, looking for any morsel of help. Anything I could use to convince myself it was still possible. And what I noticed, watching team after team, year after year, was that every single championship team had a moment of doubt in it. Every one. There was always a series where they were down. Always an injury. Always a final possession where it looked like it was over. Always a moment where the fans doubted, the coach doubted, the players doubted themselves.

That gave me something to hold onto. If every champion had a moment like the one I was sitting in, then maybe mine wasn’t the end of the story. Maybe it was just the part of the story that comes before you find out what you’re made of.

So when the doubt comes for you, and it will, treat it like what it is. A part of the process. Not a verdict on who you are or what you can do. Lock in. Don’t panic. The goal is still the goal. And you keep going until you get it.

Don’t let the doubt break you down.

Stay in the fight.