LeBron James: What's Your Level of Preparation?

You don't get to the top of any craft without a relentless determination to be great. 

And if you were to ask LeBron James the single greatest reason why he is considered the greatest, or one of the greatest players ever, it would come down to a single word: preparation.

But that word, that concept, is thrown around too loosely because there are levels to preparation.

Some don’t prepare.

Some prepare a little.

Some prepare a lot.

Some prepare like their life depends on it.

LeBron falls into the last category. He explained on his game-day routine,

I want to give myself the time to prepare how I know I would like to prepare to get ready for the game. There's no fat. There's no “fuck around time” once I get to the arena. You know I get there five hours before. As soon as I get there I put my workout gear on and I go right to the weight room. As soon as I leave the weight room, I go to the court to get a workout. As soon as I leave the court I go get body work and make sure that my body is moving…As soon as that is done, I  head in and put the normatec and the ice and all that stuff on and recover from that. As soon as that is done, now I'm reading the scouting report.

Every game, 82 games a year, LeBron James is at the gym five hours—FIVE—before the games start. Every minute, every action, everything is surgical. There are no wasted moments. No wasted time. 

That's preparation.

Spending a couple of minutes getting extra shots isn't preparation.

Reading over your notes for a meeting once isn't preparation.

Rehearsing the script for a day isn't preparation.

Preparation, the right preparation, should be an obsession. The amount of time you prepare, if you want to feel ready, if you want to give yourself the greatest chance of succeeding, should feel abnormal.

The prepared athlete spends hours after practice refining skills and spends days analyzing film.

The prepared actor lives the script. Every waking moment is about mastering and improving the role. 

The prepared founder doesn't just know most things about their company; they know everything.

Preparation, real preparation, means your life orbits around your craft. 

The next time you're preparing, remind yourself of LeBron. Are you preparing, or are you PREPARING?

There are levels to it, and the more you're willing to prepare, the farther you will go. 

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