Diligence is defined as “focusing my effort on the work at hand”.

A young high school student, just trying to find his place in life, had aspirations to play sports. Although he was relatively short and very skinny, he tried out for his High School’s varsity team. After the try-out, he learned he had been cut which caused him to feel heartbreaking rejection. When he got home and shared the news with his mother, she said, “get in the gym and work harder”.

At this moment in time, he had a choice: give up or diligently work toward his goal. He was determined that he would not be cut from the team a second time. He began practicing in the school gym before class in the morning, with the JV team in the afternoon and with his brother in the evening. He went on to make the varsity team the following year.

That’s not the end of the story, after graduating High School, he went to college and landed a starting spot as a freshman and was named a Freshman All-American. His sophomore year, he became the team’s leading scorer and by the end of his college career, he had amassed an impressive list of recognitions including College Player of the Year, #1 ACC Male Athlete, NCAA All-Tournament Team and his team won the National Championship.

After college, he was drafted into the NBA where he played 15 years and became the all-time career leader for points averaged, Top 5 NBA all-time scoring leader, named to the All-Time NBA Team and arguably the greatest ever to play the game.

In later years, he would be quoted as saying, “If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everyone has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it or work around it”. Imagine what the basketball world would have lost if Michael Jordan hadn’t diligently pursued his dream and let his High School obstacle stand in his way.

If you asked others what diligence means, you will often hear “working hard’. Even though working hard is essential and an important part to be a diligent person, it’s not the same. We can work hard without any matching results.

Here are some ingredients I submit are needed to be diligent:

• Setting short and long-term goals, developing a strategy and establishing what you may need to assist you along the way. Working hard without a plan is not diligence, it’s just hard work.
• Rarely do things go exactly as planned. We must learn to remove our rigid boundaries and adapt to the actuality of our situation. We spend too much time making excuses or denying the reality we are actually in. We must find ways to take the next step. Sometimes its forward or a sidestep or maybe a step back and adjust to the circumstances that face us. Diligence is about looking for a way through rather than a way out. The journey toward a dream often doesn’t look the way you expect but without taking the journey, you won’t be prepared for your destination.
• We retreat at the first mention of sacrifice because sacrifice does not come naturally and may bring irritation. We try to avoid uneasiness to keep us safe but we must differentiate between the good and bad discomfort and see through to the ultimate goal. Diligence will cost sacrifices.
• A diligent person can fail and keep going in the face of challenges. We have to take the losses as a learning experience and move forward regardless of the set-back. The things that will put you on the top and keep you there are thethings you learn during tough times.

Another “greatest of all time” candidate, Tom Brady, put it this way, “There will come opportunities in life that are presented to you. It’s just a matter of whether you are prepared to take advantage of the opportunity. You’ve got to develop that resilience within you. Life is not about how much you succeed, it’s about what happens when you fail. If you said, “what are the greatest wins”, I’d say, “let’s talk about the losses, those are the ones that really made me who I am”. As you go through life, things happen that you don’t want to or go the way we want. How do you deal with it? You deal it with class, integrity, courage and resilience.

I’ll conclude with another quote from Michael Jordan, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed”.