Here’s Memphis Grizzlies guard Ty Jerome on his evolution from once being an underdog to now breaking away from that mindset.
(via Underdog Talk):
“I think that’s definitely the mindset that I grew up in. Just growing up in New York City, and yeah, it’s that mindset for sure. And then, I think as I’ve grown as a person and a player, I kinda have dropped that label cuz it’s too much of a paying attention to outside noise for me. Like who are you an underdog to? Other people who don’t believe in you? Other people who don’t rank you as high as someone? You know what I mean? So, I think it’s that. When you label yourself an underdog, it’s like, ‘Okay.’ Then when you do that, it’s what are you? Looking at someone else and saying like, ‘Oh, look what I did.’ You know what I mean?
“So, I think I’ve kinda outgrown just that mindset. And instead, I kinda changed to just, ‘Honestly, how good can I be?’ Like every day, no matter what you achieve, it’s like, ‘Okay, can I be better than this?’ And you hopefully look up at the end of my career and be like, ‘Wow.’ Which is like every single day or every single week or every month of just, ‘Okay, how much better can I get now? And then, how would I learn from here?’ That’s a fairly new mindset that I’ve tried to adapt. And it’s hard, because it’s an everyday thing. And you can never just sit back and say, ‘I’m good now.’ Right? So you have to constantly keep your foot on the gas, constantly stay present, and just develop habits that will hopefully be sustainable for a long time.”
