Why You Always Need To "Touch the Line"

Fun fact:

I played competitive basketball until the end of high school.

It taught me a lot about discipline, sacrifice, and mental toughness…

But there’s one thing my high school coach Mr. Gibson taught me that still sticks with me after all these years.

And that was to “always touch the line”

Let me explain…

To prepare for our games, our coach would have us run a lot in practice to get us in the best possible shape.

There was one drill in particular that was extremely tough and tiring.

It was called suicides.

The whole team would start at one end of the court, then run to half court and touch the line, then run back to the start and touch the line, then to the other end of the court, touch the line, then go back to the start (ok you get it by now)

Each time you got back to the beginning was considered 1 rep.

He’d usually make us run for 10 reps.

The thing that made it so much harder though…

Is if he saw anyone cheat and not touch the line with their hand, we’d all have to stop and go back to the first line and restart from 0.

His reasoning:

Every short cut you take in practice, trickles into the games, then into your life, and all of a sudden, you’re taking shortcuts everywhere you can.

This lesson he taught me went way beyond the basketball court.

And I’ve found it to be a guiding rule for me in my business and personal life to this day.

Because there’s nothing worse than selling yourself short and missing out on your potential.

So my question to you is…

Are you “touching the line” every single day?

PS. I still hear his voice echo in my mind when I want to end a workout or workday early, take the easy route, or take a shortcut.