Dave Steavpack

After the 2018 NCAA Tournament, Virginia coach Tony Bennett was lost. His team collapsed in one of the biggest upsets of all time, losing as a 1-seed to 16-seed UMBC. He debated all offseason how he would address the loss and the team. His first words in 2019 would set the tone for their memorable season. Tony Bennett debated how he would talk to his team, but his wife had an idea. She had attended a series of TED Talks in Charlottesville in 2014 and one talk stuck with her. It was about storytelling and adversity, it was called How the Story Transforms the Teller. And this is how a TED Talk motivated the Virginia basketball team to become national champions. Tony Bennett watched the TED Talk and took so many powerful lessons, but most of all, he learned the power of adversity and the stories that we tell ourselves. At the bottom, there is a link to the video of the TED Talk, and I included some great quotes throughout. After watching the talk, Tony Bennett had an idea. On the first practice in October, instead of getting out on the court, he had his team watch this 17-minute TED Talk. In the TED Talk, the speaker Donald Davis says, “You’re not telling the story to change what happened. You’re telling the story to change you.” And that is what the Cavaliers did. They told their story. It allowed them to accept what happened in 2018 and move on from how they felt. Kyle Guy, starting shooting guard, talked about how much the loss hurt him and even how they needed a police escort after the game because they received death threats. He said, “For me, it's never forgetting it, but definitely trying to move past it to where I'm not hanging my head on it.” Assistant Coach Jason Williford told his story about how he didn’t shave or leave the house for three days. Finally after 3 days and talking to his wife, he knew it was time to get up and rewrite Virginia's story in 2019. Virginia, with a few lucky bounces and calls, would go on to win the 2019 national championship. As part of his own story, Tony Bennett said at the game, “If you learn to use adversity right, it will buy you a ticket to a place you can’t go to any other way. I think (last year’s loss to UMBC) bought us a ticket to a national championship.” Takeaway 1: Growth only happens when you accept your past and then learn from your mistakes, adversity, and "failures". Challenges will happen. Mistakes will happen. It is your choice how you respond and learn from those events. Choose to respond and not react. Buddha once said that life is suffering and there will always be pain. By accepting it and moving forward, you take ownership on what you can control. You begin to think “Why not me?” instead of “Why me?” Takeaway 2: The most dangerous stories you make up are the ones that diminish your worthiness. You tell yourself stories every day. Those stories will determine your attitude, mindset, and habits moving forward. It will drive your perceptions of reality and start to form your confidence beliefs and self-limiting beliefs. In Donald Davis’ TED Talk, he emphasizes the power that one story can have on your perception of reality. Choose to re-frame your stories and overcome those self-limiting beliefs because that's how you move you forward. "Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." - Napoleon Hill - - - Follow @coachajkings for more content like this!