Sacred hoops thoughts.
Sacred hoops is a treatise on teamwork and understanding that we are all connected to each other. We live in a culture and society that focus on individual achievement and me first. This book is a challenge to that way of life and a challenge to embrace something much different but much more valuable. An individual can accomplish a lot but nothing like what a team of people united can accomplish.
Favorite quote from Sacred Hoops
I wasn’t alone. Our whole societal structure is built around rewarding winners, at the perilous expense of forsaking community and compassion. Pg. 202
3 lessons from Sacred Hoops.
1. A team can do more than an individual can.
It requires the individuals involved to surrender their self-interest for the greater good so that the whole adds up to more than the sum of its parts. pg 5.
As I said above, we live in a society that rewards individual achievement at the cost of the whole. Phil Jackson understood that for the Bulls to achieve greatness it required everyone doing their role to accomplish greatness. You will never accomplish as much alone as you could with a team. The prevailing mentality is step on anyone to get ahead and brag about yourself over giving credit to others. If you want to be great build a team around you and help each person find their role.
2. Having an inner sanctuary can be powerful.
I had the room decorated this way to reinforce in the players’ minds that our journey together each year…is a sacred quest. pg. 12
I can’t tell you how much I love this idea. Creating a sacred space that you can go to allowing you to escape the craziness of life and remember that your life has a purpose and sacred meaning is invaluable. Far too many of us do not have a space that is a sacred inner sanctuary to retreat too. Life can get intense and stressful and without a place to clear your head and remind yourself that the little struggle you are going through mean nothing in the great scheme of your life. Because each of us have an purpose in this life that is far greater than what most of us are settling for.
3. Compassion and Community trump all.
I wasn’t alone. Our whole societal structure is built around rewarding winners, at the perilous expense of forsaking community and compassion. Pg. 202
Phil Jackson couldn’t be more accurate with his statement. We reward winners and yet compassion and community are the true characteristics that allow you to achieve greatness. Compassion is often viewed as weakness and community has become almost impossible for our culture because we don’t trust anyone and we don’t know how to get along with each other. I can’t challenge you enough to focus on compassion and community if you want to become the best version of yourself.