Nikola Jokic and detaching from work
NBA star, Nikola Jokic, made headlines this week when he expressed his disappointment about having to postpone his trip home for the Nugget’s victory parade. It’s funny to realize that a professional athlete can view their sport as just a job. Even the stars can be just like us.
Jokes aside, I think there’s a lot to learn from the way Jokic approaches work. In his post game press conference, he said this:
“We succeeded in our jobs and we won the whole thing. It’s an amazing feeling. But like I said before, it’s not everything in the world.”
There’s no question that Jokic’s genes and talent make him formidable on the court. And he definitely cares about winning. But I have to wonder if his mentality that basketball isn’t everything just might be one of the most underrated reasons for his success.
In her book, “Big Magic”, the writer Liz Gilbert argues that creating freely as an artist rests on the ability to simultaneously care deeply about your craft, while also being unattached to the outcome of your work. She attests:
“It matters./It doesn’t matter. Build space in your head for this paradox. Build as much space for it as you can.”
Gilbert’s writing begs the question: What’s possible when we care about our work but don’t operate as if our life depends on it? What might fill the space that is no longer occupied by pressure and worry?
For a lot of us, it’s easy to believe that having adequate motivation necessitates creating pressure. It’s vulnerable to recreate our identity outside of work, to admit that what we do doesn’t say everything about who we are. It can be scary to confront the question: How big might we play if the fear of failure was not so consuming?
How do we do it? How do we care deeply while detaching? In Rick Rubin’s book, “The Creative Act: A Way of Being,” he offers this suggestion:
“Consider detaching from the story of your life as it’s happening…Instead of sinking into the pain of heartbreak or the stress of being laid off or the grief of loss, if practicing detachment the response might be: I wasn’t expecting the plot twist. I wonder what’s going to happen to our hero next.”
Rubin contends:
“This practice—of never assuming an experience you have is the whole story—will support you in a life of open possibility and equanimity.”
Make no mistake, both Gilbert and Rubin believe in hard work, perseverance, and constantly recommitting yourself to the work. They just don’t want you to create with the mentality that everything in your life depends on it. They believe in forward motion and continuing to create with the freedom that we can always begin anew.
I ask you to consider these questions:
What if that thing you’re ruminating on or afraid of wasn’t that serious?
What if it was just one chapter in a longer and more interesting story?
How might this “caring detachment” propel you forward in ways you never imagined?
Maybe your own “NBA title” lies on the other side. Not that Jokic cares - this is just one chapter in his own hero’s story.
