You Miss All The Shots You Don't Take

On the one hand, it makes sense right. As us Aussies would say, you’ve gotta be in it to win it.

And of course, there is an element of truth to that. If you don’t buy the ticket, you won’t get to go to the show.  If you don’t take the shot, you definitely won’t get the goal.

But on the other hand, what is the cost of taking the shot, what do you close yourself off from experiencing, by going to the show.

For example, in my job as an A&R for a record label, there is an idea that you won’t have a hit with a record you don’t sign, but you might have a hit with a record that you do. So there’s the temptation to sign things that you’re not truly in love with, simply on the premise that it definitely won’t be a hit for you if you don’t sign it, but given there’s the chance that it might be, then what do you have to lose.

But my answer to this is that for each record you sign that you don’t love, the resources that you could pour into the records that you do love, are diminished and accordingly, so are the results.

Time is our most precious commodity - no matter how much money or power we may possess, our time in these bodies is limited.

So we really should take the time to work out how best to use it.

The more rested we are, the better at this we become.

When one pulls back a bow to fire an arrow, it feels counterintuitive. We want the arrow to go forward, but we’re pulling the bow back.

But the reality is, the further we pull the bow back, the further the arrow will go forward when we finally let it go.

It’s the same with rest. The more dynamic our rest, the more dynamic our activity. 

If you’re a Vedic Meditator, then you’ll know that the level of rest achieved whilst practicing VM is many times more restful than sleep. 

The result - not only is our bow pulled right back, but we get better and better at when and where to fire it, not taking all the shots, but taking the right ones at the right time. Not only do we give ourselves the best chance of making the shots, they are shots we actually want to make.

Of course, we don’t get too caught up on the outcome - if we miss the shot - that’s fine - maybe it was the shot we needed to miss to set us up for the next shot - which is the one we actually needed to make.

The most important thing is taking the time “out” to ensure that our time “in” is well spent.

Michael Jordan was a master at taking the right shot at the right time.