The Mindset Mentor - Life Lessons From Kobe Bryant

Episode Date: January 27, 2020

Kobe Bryant died yesterday at the age for 41. Here are a few of the lessons that I have learned from his life and his death.Follow me on Instagram @RobDialJr https://www.instagram.com/robdialjr/ Want to learn more about Mindset Mentor+? For nearly nine years, the Mindset Mentor Podcast has guided you through life's ups and downs. Now, you can dive even deeper with Mindset Mentor Plus. Turn every podcast lesson into real-world results with detailed worksheets, journaling prompts, and a supportive community of like-minded people. Enjoy monthly live Q&A sessions with me, and all this for less than a dollar a day. If you’re committed to real, lasting change, this is for you.Join here 👉 www.mindsetmentor.com My first book that I’ve ever written is now available. It’s called LEVEL UP and It’s a step-by-step guide to go from where you are now, to where you want to be as fast as possible.📚If you want to order yours today, you can just head over to robdial.com/bookHere are some useful links for you… If you want access to a multitude of life advice, self development tips, and exclusive content daily that will help you improve your life, then you can follow me around the web at these links here:Instagram TikTokFacebookYoutube

Welcome to today's episode of the Minds of Mentor podcast. I'm your host Rob Dial. And if you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another episode. And today we have a sad podcast, but I don't want to make it sad. I want to be as upbeat as I can. Kobe Bryant died today. And he died, you know, he's 41 years old and he died in a helicopter accident with his 13 year old daughter, uh, which both of those, you know, hit me pretty hard. I learned about it when I was at the gym and I thought about it and I was like, should I do an episode? Should I not do an episode? Should I do an episode? Should I not do an episode? Um, I've never been a huge Kobe Bryant fan when he played basketball. I was always

a huge Michael Jordan fan. But a couple of years ago, a guy named Gordon Hayward, who's a basketball player, tore his Achilles and Kobe Bryant wrote him a letter. And it was at that moment that I kind of realized a little bit more into the way he was. And I started to research him and I learned about him. And I've actually made two videos on Kobe Bryant, I realized, because of how much I loved his mentality. And let me read, let me just, before I dive into talking about Kobe Bryant, let me read this letter that he wrote. It was two years ago because Kobe Bryant had tore his Achilles during a basketball game and then got up and shot the free throws. And then, you know, ended up losing, you know, it was about 12 months of recovery he had. And he wrote a letter to Gordon Hayward because he also tore his Achilles two years ago. And let me read it to you and then let's break it down and talk about Kobe Bryant. So,

you know, he says, be mad, be sad. This is just, let me, let me make sure this is Kobe Bryant writing a letter to Gordon Hayward. I'll just put it that way. So he says, be mad, be sad, be frustrated, scream, cry, sulk. When you wake up, you will think that it was just a nightmare only to realize that it was all too real. You will be angry and you will wish for the day back, for the game back, for that playback. But reality gives you nothing back, nor should you. Time to move on and focus on doing everything in your power to prepare for surgery. Ask all the questions to be sure that you fully understand the procedure so that you may visualize it in your subconscious while being operated on and better your chance of success. Then focus on the recovery process day by day

by day. It's a long journey, but if you focus on the many milestones along the way, you will find beauty in the struggle of doing simple things prior to this injury that you had taken for granted. This will also mean that when you return, you will have a new perspective. You will be so appreciative of being able to stand, to walk, to run, that you will train harder than you ever have. You will see belief within you grow with each mini milestone and you will come back a better player for it. Best of luck to you on this journey, my brother. There's a few things in there that made me realize, holy crap, Kobe Bryant is on another level. Now, if you didn't know, Kobe Bryant is famous for working out at three or four o'clock in the morning every single day since he

was 13 years old and he was drafted into the NBA at 17. He worked out every single morning at three or four o'clock since he was 13 years old. So that shows dedication. That shows hard work. But one thing that he says inside of this notice, he says, be mad, be sad, be frustrated. The great thing about this is that it shows the humanity of be a human. When things go wrong, allow yourself to have time to process the emotions, to process whatever it is that you need to process. Don't just act like you need to go on and that life goes on and that you should do something different. Be frustrated, scream, cry, sulk. And then what he says is it's going to seem like a nightmare, but what you need to do is you need to move on. So this is a life lesson for you. No matter what

it is, it's a life lesson for me. Be a human. But at one point in time, you have to move on. If somebody breaks up with you, cry, sulk, let it all out. But at some point in time, you got to wake up. And what he says is he says, you'll want that playback. You'll want that game yet back. You want that day back. You want it all back, but you won't get it back. It's time to move on and to start working. Then the next thing he says, it's really incredible is make sure you visualize it in your subconscious. This is something that I am really big on. I teach this to a lot of people that are in my private coaching sessions is the power of visualization of training your subconscious mind into creating what it is that you want. He says, learn as much as you can about the surgery

so that you can visualize it in your subconscious. That way you'll be able to heal better. So think about that. How often do you visualize the life that you actually clearly want? And he says that, and then, you know, as he goes through and talks about the mini milestones is he says, you will, you will find the beauty in the struggle of doing simple things that prior to the injury you've taken for granted. And it'll give you a new perspective on life. Isn't that one of the beauties of just some of the worst things that happen in the world is that it gives you new perspective. You know, you don't want to go through the things as you're going through them because they're so hard. But when you go through the crap, it makes you appreciate the good, right?

When you're in, in the lows of your life, it makes you appreciate the highs. When it's been raining for seven days in a row, it makes you appreciate the beautiful sun when it comes out. And he says, you'll have a new perspective to do things just like stand, just like walk and run. And you'll have so much appreciation more than you ever have for those things. And so what I remember when I read this letter, I was like, holy crap, this is like a masterclass on mindset. No wonder why this guy is one of the top three basketball players ever. And he has this thing and it's been coined as the, you know, everyone used to call him the black mamba. It was the mamba mentality. It was a way to think. And one thing that he says is obsession is not optional. Like if you're going to become one of the greatest at something, obsession is not optional. It is

something that is required. Hard work, waking up at 3 or 4 a.m. I mean, there's a really great story that I had found as I was looking through this and I remember hearing this before and And it was during the Olympics. It was like the here it is. It says the 2012 Olympics You know There was a trainer that was working out the United States team and he was helping them train and he got a call at 3 o'clock in the morning Actually, it says right here from at 4 o'clock in the morning He got a call from Kobe Bryant and he was nervous to answer phone. He's like why you know, he's asleep He says why in the hell is Kobe Bryant calling me at 4 o'clock in the morning, he got a call from Kobe Bryant and he was nervous to answer the phone. He's like, why? You know, he's asleep. He says, why in the hell is Kobe Bryant calling me at four o'clock

in the morning? And he called him and asked him to come to the gym. And he's like, yeah, I'll get ready and I'll come meet you at the gym. So the guy gets ready and he gets down there at five o'clock in the morning and Kobe Bryant was already drenched in sweat. So by the time the trainer gets there at five o'clock in the morning, Kobe Bryant's already drenched in sweat. He is the only one that is there. He said they worked out together for 45 minutes. Then the trainer went back to his hotel room to get some sleep before everybody was supposed to be on the court at 11 a.m. in the morning.

And Kobe Bryant said, you know what? I'm going to go back to doing some shooting practice. Go ahead and get some sleep. And he goes, okay, cool. They break apart. 11 AM comes, the trainer comes down and he's like, Hey man, good morning. And, uh, he said, he said, good work this morning. And Kobe's like, what do you mean? And he's like the conditioning, good work in the conditioning. He's like, yeah, man, thank you. I really appreciate that. And then he says, so when did you finish? And he goes, finish what? He goes, when did you finish getting your shots up? What time did you leave the facility? He goes, oh, oh, I just finished just now. I haven't left the facility

yet. I wanted to make 800 shots. So, you know, you know, just now I just left. Kobe Bryant woke up and we started working out at four o'clock in the morning. Practice was at 11 o'clock in the morning. He worked out by himself and did practice and had the trainer come in for 45 minutes for seven hours before the entire team got there at 11. And it shows you, if you want to be absolutely great at something, it requires an obsessive amount of focus. It requires absolute love, but here's what's great about it. And this is what you realize when somebody dies. Okay. Number one, death is the most important part of life. And the reason why it's the most important part of life is because of the fact that it puts life into perspective, because it makes

you realize that you need to be doing the one thing that you're supposed to be doing in this life, which is live. And when you see someone, it's been inspiring as hell today to scroll through Instagram. And when I learned it happened, it took about an hour for it to start popping up on Instagram. And I showed my girlfriend, Lauren, I said, look at this, look at my Instagram, 30 posts in a row on my Instagram were about Kobe Bryant. 30 posts in a row on my Instagram were about Kobe Bryant. And I thought to myself, if I could have somewhat of an impact in the world, like this guy did at least a little, like a sliver of what this guy did, then I've done a good job. So when you think about the obsession, the work that you're putting into the craft, whatever it is, you're trying to do the

business that you're trying to build the family that you're putting into the craft, whatever it is you're trying to do, the business that you're trying to build, the family that you're trying to build, the marriage, the perfect marriage that you're trying to build, whatever it is that you're trying to build, it requires absolute obsession. You know, only if all of us would put that level of obsession into our relationships, into our family, into our businesses, into everything that we do. If everybody in the world started putting that level of obsession into everything that they did, this will be a better place. There would be no issues with fires in Australia. There would be no issues with wars. There would be no issues with plastic in the ocean. There would be none of those issues because we would be working at optimal speed. Everybody would be

working to their full capacity. But what capacity do we all work at? And when you see someone like Kobe Bryant, you see someone like Michael Jordan, you see someone like anyone who's an incredible professional athlete, it gives you a glimpse of what's truly possible as a human. But you don't get there by half-assing your life. You get there like he did by working out for seven hours before the entire team comes in. He was infamous for being there for hours before everybody else. There was another story I remember hearing. Jay Williams, a few years ago, he was on a podcast and he was talking about how he got to the gym. he's playing Kobe's team and he got to the gym and Kobe was already working out there. And he's like, I'm going to work out longer than Kobe will.

And it was hours and hours and hours and hours and hours. And Kobe never left the gym because Kobe was competitive as well. And he's like, I'm going to work out longer than this guy. And eventually Jay Williams left, but it showed him the mentality of greatness is if you're going to be truly great at something, you need to work harder than anybody else around you. If you're out there and you're trying to become great, or you're trying to build this great business or this great relationship or this great family or this great, you know, charity that you're trying to build, whatever it is. If you're, if you're trying to become the best dancer in the world, it's going to take obsession. And it's not about how much money you make. It's about how many people are at your funeral. That's the one thing that I've learned. I remember

a few years ago, I went there, I went to, you know, a friend's parents funeral, and it was so big that there were people that were outside of the church. And he didn't make much money his entire life. But I thought to myself, when you die, it's not about the size of your bank account. It's about how many people are at your funeral. Because if there's nobody at your funeral, you probably did something wrong. But if there's an overflow of people at your funeral, you probably did something right. And then, you know, you look at somebody like this, who's considered one of the top three basketball players ever. And he said that his greatest accomplishment was being a daughter of five, of four daughters, being a father of four daughters, you know, and it really

puts in perspective that, you know, you can hear something about someone in the news. You can hear about the good things they've done about the good things they've done, the bad things they've done, all of this stuff. But usually the news is going to tell you all the bad things that they've done. And up until two and a half years ago, I was not a huge Kobe Bryant fan. But once I started to realize the human that he is, what he's doing for the world,

the children's, the stuff he's doing for children and all of that stuff that he's been doing over the past couple of years, it's inspiring. And to see the outpouring of love that he has gotten has been super inspiring. It makes me want to do more with my life. It makes me want to get up earlier tomorrow. It makes me want to work harder tomorrow at impacting people's lives. And it comes because you see people like him that show you a glimpse of what it would be like for you if you really decided to take your life to the next level. So that's the inspiring thing about it. And, you know, we look at it in, in times like this,

when somebody dies early, 41 years old, his daughter's 13 years old, it's tough to think about because it makes you really sad to think about both of them losing their lives. Right. Uh, but if you, the thing that comforts me that I hope will comfort you, whether you're a Kobe Wright fan or whether you have somebody who left, you feel like they left this world early. You feel like they died too soon, whatever it is that might've been. Uh, it reminds me of a Ram Dass quote that I always tell myself. And the quote is, a soul does not leave this plane a second too early or a second too soon. Everything happens for a reason. And so when things like this happen, this is what I have to tell myself. And so I hope that you learned

something from Kobe Bryant's life. Neil, I hope that you hug the people that you love a little bit tighter. Don't just text them and tell them that you love them. If you can see him face to face, go see him face to face because life's short, it's fragile and you never know when it's going to be gone. And, uh, with the time that you have, I hope that, uh, you can work hard, inspire people, become obsessed with something, create something beautiful. And then hopefully, you know, there's one thing we can never run from that's death. And hopefully, uh, you will have lots and lots of people at your funeral as well. So I appreciate you for listening to this podcast episode. If you love this episode, please share it with someone

that you know and love as well. And, uh, you know And please tag us on your Instagram stories as you're listening to it. I've been loving looking at all of you guys and seeing your faces, seeing you talk about the podcast and recommending it to people and taking screenshots of you listening to it and sharing it. And if you decide to, please tag me on Instagram. It's RobDialJr, R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. And I'm going to leave you the same way I leave you every single episode, making sure mission makes someone else's day better.

I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.