Finding Better "Nows" Is the Key

Lots of people call me "Coach Huff" in Swish House class, and it makes me laugh on the inside. Do they actually view me as their hoops train/coach? Am I really helping them? Am I qualified to train them?

Even being a pro hooper for 13 years, I still struggle with imposter syndrome.

I often look back on my life overseas and my short stint in the NBA and think, "How did I even do that?"

As you get older and further removed from your career, the answer is gone with the wind.

Then I see their Swish House faces, smiles, laughter, competitiveness, and joy as they work out in class. And I remember another quote I love by Emily Dickinson: "Forever is composed of nows."

Coaching Swish House has taught me to ask: what do your "nows" say about your life?

Because the "nows" matter if you make them matter. They matter more than we think. They matter because "now" is the only time that creates anything, even if your now is chasing around a leather basketball and trying to throw it in a metal circle suspended 10 feet in the air.

Lately, my nows have been full of pickleball, fitness, teaching basketball, hanging with friends, traveling to Michigan, trying to live connected and healthy, and, lastly, writing. I enjoy these nows, but I don't get enough of them sometimes.

Why is that?

I think our society is (and was) designed to remove us from our most meaningful nows. It wants us to grind for eight hours a day toward productivity, money, success, and progress at all costs.

I don't think we should progress at all costs; I think we should slow down and focus on our most meaningful versions of "nows."

Coach Bennett (Nike's Run Coach) sums up finding your authentic version of nows nicely:

"Struggling does not mean failure. Struggling means successfully not giving up. Struggling means you are still in it. Struggling means you are invested. Struggling means you are still trying. Struggling means you have not given up. Struggling means there’s still a chance. More starting lines await. I’ll meet you there."

Let's agree to meet at the starting line of our most meaningful nows today.

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And good luck out there with your version of nows.

Coach Huff