500 Words a Week - Shoot Your Shot
Recently, I’ve been wrestling with thoughts around belief. In the summer of 2024, I left my job to try and craft a career as a coach helping individuals live life on their own terms.
On the one hand I have feelings of belief that this will turn into a career that I will be proud of, and I’ll be able to look back on this time and be happy with myself for sticking with it.
On the other hand, I experience feelings of intense questioning. What am I doing? Should I get a stable job?
What’s helped me recently was learning about David Roche and his “shoot your shot” philosophy.
David Roche is a wonderful human being and an ultra marathon runner who broke the record at the famous Leadville 100 mile race.
David's philosophy stems from the global world of sports, and in particular the world of basketball. Where “shooters shot”. Regardless of the occasion, the internal dialogue, whether they feel like it or not, they take their shot.
It speaks to controlling what you can control. We can’t fully control whether our shot goes in or not, but we can control how many shots we take. We can control whether we show up again tomorrow to take our shot.
We don’t judge ourselves on whether they all go in or not.
In fact, most of our shots are going to miss terribly.
We just keep showing up everyday, for that is what we can control. It’s about “getting comfortable in that liminal space between triumph and disaster”.
It’s about not living in our past failures, or the future potentialities, it’s about doing what we can in the moment.
“Invest in yourself fully because you have one chance at every passing day.”
Another aspect I’ve learned from David, is to not be afraid of being vulnerable. Of saying what you are hoping to accomplish in your endeavours, and then shooting your shot. It goes in or it doesn’t, either way we can try again another day.
How often are we afraid to speak our goals, as we are afraid of how we will look if we fail to achieve them?
2025 is the year for shooting our shot! For putting our bold intentions out into the world, and showing up each day to work toward them.
In the spirit of David Roche, and shooting your shot. I’ve signed up for my first ultra-marathon, an 80km event in May.
Next time you are about to do something that makes you slightly afraid, that makes you a little nervous, that has you thinking about how others will respond over your own internal motivation. Think “shooters shot”, don’t endlessly contemplate what the outcome will be, take the shot.
To paraphrase David Roche on the Rich Roll Podcast, “Shoot a shot you’re scared of. One, because that’s how we learn. But two, because unless you shoot 100 of them and miss 100 of them, at some point, you’re never going to have that one that you swish from half court. I want everyone to choose some goal that is so freakishly scary that it motivates a daily process that is fulfilling.”
For the dreamers.
For anyone striving to accomplish something meaningful in their lives.
Shoot your shot, for it might just work out.
