Marketing for Rainmakers

There was a great article in the Boston Globe this week about the pre-game routine of the Celtics’ sweet-shooting Ray Allen. Anyone who has seen Allen play swears the guy is a natural. He’s focused, his release is silky smooth, and the arc of the ball is pure magic. Put it all together and it looks like he’s hardly trying; but that’s actually the result of trying so hard to get it perfect. Allen is one of the most diligent and disciplined athletes in the NBA or any other sport. He gets to the locker room three hours before tip-off and shoots hundreds of balls, all by himself. He’s the quintessential team player, but he understands that the best way to help his team is to keep improving his own skills. And part of that improvement is the routine.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but routines are often the driving force behind personal achievement. Notwithstanding the common belief that routines are evidence of a dull and dreary mindset, they are actually quite the opposite. Routines — whether shooting a hundred free throws a day, ordering the same Starbucks venti non-fat latte every single day, visiting a place of worship, or walking the dogs — serve the same purpose as the crack of a starter’s pistol. They get you in the game. They focus all your energy on the goal. In truth, they’re somewhat Pavlovian because they operate at a subconscious level. We think we’re drinking a latte, whereas our subconscious is getting ready to win that case or nail that presentation.

Think about your own routine and embrace it. And if you don’t have a routine, get one. Every professional athlete has one, whether stepping up to the tee box or stepping out of the batter’s box between pitches. It’s part of being the best you can be, which is at the core of a rainmaking mindset.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 22:16 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.