I was inspired by the recent Michael Jordan documentary series released on ESPN during covid-19.
I grew up watching Michael Jordan, but not much. I had his reversible black/red jersey in 7-year-old boy size. I LOVED Space Jam. I knew Mike was the man, but basketball wasn’t really my thing. I played hockey growing up from the time I could walk basically to starting high school. I knew what I was good at and I stuck to it. But then I was introduced to water polo in 9th grade via the 2004 summer Olympics. I watched team USA play, I believe while on vacation somewhere. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do going into high school. I was athletic and had always loved sports — I thrived in hockey but I was over it. I didn’t envision playing football, that wasn’t my speed either. But when I saw water polo on tv for the first time, I saw these broad shouldered, well built athletic dudes basically fist fighting in the water they were treading in the 10 ft. deep pool. I loved it. So I told my dad and he contacted the coach. Coach said the summer program was nearly finished since it was August at that point. “Your only option”, he said, “is to come out to ‘hell week’ starting Monday”.
A week of hell? Sign me up!
So I went to hell week, and it was hell. I was miserable after the first half of the first day. And every day that week, Monday to Friday, there were two practices a day and weightlifting. I’d never lifted a weight in my life. I came home at lunch on the first day, and as soon as we got into the house after my mom picked me up, I went to my room and passed out for two hours straight. I woke up and dreaded going back. But my mom made me.
I shoved a pb&j into my mouth and we headed for the high school pool. I feel like half the kids and coaches were as surprised as I was to see me come back. But I did. I began something new. I stuck with it. And before long I was a varsity swimmer and water polo player. I was able to have fresh eyes for something new. A new challenge. I needed something new to suck at for awhile. To build something from the ground up.
Michael Jordan got ridiculed for going to play baseball after winning three championships with the Chicago Bulls. He was done. His father had just been discovered after he went missing for weeks. He was brutally murdered and Michael had just buried his closest friend, his dad. As a father now I can’t imagine the pain. As a son, I can’t ponder the grief.
And Michael did walk away. With a lot on the table still, many would say. But he needed something fresh. A restart. A beginning.
He’d loved baseball from the time he was small, and that passion grew until late high school. But many years had passed since high school. The triple champion wasn’t fresh out of UNC anymore. But there was a new beginning needing to occur, still. So he did the courageous and, really, inspiring thing. He went back to square one. He became a student again. He made mistakes and missteps. He was green, and he had to learn.
Each new opportunity we’re afforded, is to be our Teacher. Whether that be of our own choosing or of time’s tricky way of surprising us with painful guides and unbearable gurus. It’s all the same trip, baby. Because, really, none of us are experts at this. At anything. It’s all changing, all the time.
The Work is to allow everything. The Work sometimes involves work. Other times it’s a breath that hovers and speaks to wait. Other times the Work is to grieve a deep loss. Sometimes it’s ask is to retire. And the Work will always, in some relevant way, present an opportunity to begin again. To start over. To hit reset and see things new. Beginner’s mind is simple, and it is not. You cannot say it is simple, that is saying too much. You cannot say it is not simple, that is saying too little.
Jordan’s beginner’s mind is responsible for the the drive behind six championships. Because they all stand alone. Each year presented new opportunities via obstacles, roadblocks, and opponents. New joy and passion, too. But how can there be enough Juice to keep going? I often ask myself this after about a year of being at a job. “Okay, this is good. But, where is the newness? Is this it?”
Beginner’s mind sees each moment, even back to back championships, as new. It also sees laundry every day because your kid goes through 8 outfits a day as an opportunity for newness each time. There’s a door there, still. If you open it, what’s behind will be different each time. Same door, different experience. And the present experience, right now, is the exact experience you need. The next door you open will provide everything needed. That’s really how it works, I’m convinced. This generous universe
It’s possible for us, too. Wherever we’re at. Dream job or not. Whether you’re in a sweet time of life, or enduring the season of pain that will take some time. There’s an opportunity to see fresh life there.
“The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!”
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