WHAT’S “GOOD ENOUGH” FOR YOU?
There are plenty of elite-level performers in the world, but I'm not sure anyone on planet Earth is better at doing one thing than Steph Curry is at shooting a basketball. Widely regarded as the greatest shooter in NBA history, Curry has made more three-pointers than anyone who’s ever played. Need video proof of his prowess? Here’s a recent clip of him knocking down 105 three-pointers in a row. 105 in a row! Are you serious?! He's become the model of excellence in this area. He is the best. And yet, for Steph Curry, that wasn’t good enough. He still wasn’t satisfied.
This way of thinking is unique and uncommon. When it comes to their own performance, too many people in the world today accept mediocrity from themselves without a second thought. They set the bar too low. But the mindset of a champion is different. The best of the best aren't easily satisfied. They are driven by a relentless desire to get better, and they are constantly raising the bar for their performance. They are constantly re-defining “good enough.”
That’s what Steph Curry has done. As he’s continued to get better and better, the bar he's set for himself continues to get higher and higher. A few years ago, Curry and his trainer, Brandon Payne, determined that simply making shots in their workouts no longer cut it. They had to raise the bar. So they started counting swishes as makes, and non-swishes - shots that still went in but touched some part of the rim - as misses. What most shooters considered a win, Curry started counting as a loss.
As Curry’s continued to get better and better, the bar he sets for himself continues to get higher and higher.
Recently, his standard of excellence moved to an even higher level. In 2021, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled, “Steph Curry’s Scientific Quest for the Perfect Shot.” The article outlined how Curry and Payne started working with a researcher named Rachel Marty Pyke, who had created a unique shot-tracking program that essentially shrunk the size of the basket for Steph to target by providing feedback after every attempt.
“A shot that strays nearly five inches away from the center of the hoop in either direction can still be a swish,” the article says. “But that margin of error in his left-right positioning was much too high for Curry. So last summer, as he shot threes in the NBA offseason, he gave himself only three inches of wiggle room. He was even more demanding when shooting from closer: Curry’s leeway for his free throws was two inches.”
Steph started referring to this new shooting challenge, with the help of this detailed feedback, as attempting to make “swishes within swishes.” That’s right, simply swishing the shot, which he was satisfied with only a year or two before and which the majority shooters on planet earth would be thrilled with, wasn’t good enough for him anymore. It's another example of his relentless commitment to raising the bar for himself and finding new ways to improve. If you’re wondering how the best find a way to keep getting better? There’s your answer. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.
If you’re someone chasing excellence in some important area of life, there’s a valuable lesson here that applies to your pursuit. At its core is a simple but really important question you have to answer: what’s “good enough” for you? How easily satisfied are you with your performance? Is your standard different today than it was last year? Or the year before? If so, you are on the right track. If not, it might be time to stop and consider what's kept you from making that difficult choice up til now, and to consider if perhaps today it's time to raise the bar.
The next time you see Steph Curry pull up for a shot, don’t be surprised when it drops effortlessly through the bottom of the net. Just remember that what he makes look easy is actually the by-product of a relentless commitment to his own improvement. The crowd will roar as the play-by-play announcer makes the call we’ve heard so many times. “Curry’s shot is up, and it’s good!” And while he might not show it on the outside, you can bet there’s a chance Curry himself has made a different judgment. Yeah, it was good. Just not good enough.