What Kobe Bryant Taught Us About Mindset And Success (1978–2020)
“Everything Negative — pressure, CHALLENGES — is all an opportunity for me to RISE” — Kobe Bryant
(This post does not come without massive grief, emotions, heartache, and tears.)
Yesterday I was sitting in a restaurant looking out at the ocean, having an extremely productive morning.
In fact I had just come off of an extremely productive weekend, getting things done that would move my dream business forward.
Everything was going great and then I opened instagram and the first post I see is from Lewis Howes and he was sharing the sudden news of Kobe Bryant’s passing, after a helicopter crash.
I was immediately sick to my stomach.
‘This isn’t real. There is no way.’ I thought to myself.
So I looked it up, and YES, it was in fact true.
I felt like I was going to vomit. I couldn’t believe this was happening.
About 30 minutes after I read that his 13 year old daughter was also with him.
In fact there was 9 people on board, and there were no survivors.
In an instance my whole entire mood, energy, and life changed (more on this below).
Did I know Kobe personally? NO.
But just like everyone else on planet earth, I idolized him, I respected him, and I knew who we was.
I was constantly inspired by his work ethic, his drive, his commitment to his dream, and who he was as a person off the court.
I tried to hold it together for the rest of the time I was at the restaurant, but when I returned to my room, I broke.
I broke down in hysterics crying. I felt so much pain for the loss of a legend and for the families involved in the accident.
I decided to embrace it fully.
I have NEVER in my life been impact by someone I don’t know passing, like the way this was impacting me.
I leaned into it and let the grief, tears, and emotions flow.
After a few hours of feeling like I was out of it, I decided to have a seat and reflect on what this man, this goat, this human being, had taught me and what the experience meant to the world.
I spent some serious time in reflection, not only for what I just mentioned, but for my life and where I was.
And now I want to share with you what I discovered through this emotional and shocking moment in my life.
To start:
1.) The amount of pain everyone around the world felt today, speaks volumes to the fact that we are energetic beings and when something like this happens, everyone is impacted.
2.) We are reminded that our punch card of life could be expired at any given moment and it offers ourselves a chance to check-in.
3.) When a true legend passes away his words are reverberate for lifetimes and his desire to inspire will always be available to us.
Now let me dive deeper into what this mean to not only me, but to you as well.
1.) One of Kobe’s greatest gifts for us all was his mindset and drive to become the GREATEST OF ALL TIME (GOAT).
Now, if you are new to mindset, what this means is that his beliefs, thoughts, and stories that he told himself were nothing but supporting of his dream to pursue a career in the NBA and become GOAT.
Everything that man thought about was aligned with his desire to WIN big on the court (outside of his family of course).
And just like all of us, he had to put his time and effort into make this dream happen and it all started with his beliefs and thoughts, his work ethic, and his drive, all of which were supported by a healthy mindset to win.
On a deeper level those beliefs, thoughts, and stories that he was producing to support his vision were that of energy.
Everything on planet earth is energy, and when we decide to shift our beliefs and thoughts, we engage in a form of energy and that energy then seeps into our beings and it becomes our reality over time.
That is why he was so persistent with his beliefs and thoughts and making sure that they were aligned with his vision.
This is not new information, majority of successful people will tell you their mindset (beliefs, thoughts, and stories) were the reason for them accomplishing their goals and dreams.
Now let me show you this from a different perspective to give you a really good understand of just how POWERFUL you are.
When the news broke of Kobe’s passing, the world felt it. The energy around planet earth changed.
Anyone who knew who he was, or knew about basketball, were gutted to hear the news.
But how does this happen?
How does a whole entire planet feel the emotional pain of this loss?
Because everything is energy. And today what most of us experienced was a drastic shift in the planetary energy.
We all felt this pain because we are energetic beings and when a LARGE group of people feel a certain emotion, it is felt in mass movement.
Again, this is because everything is energy and when one type of energy is impacted, all other energy is affected.
Which brings me to this; when we talk about going after our dreams or we talk about mindset, you must understand just how powerful your mindset is and how powerful you are as an energetic being.
And if for any second you doubted your ability to radically change your life through your beliefs, thoughts, words, actions, then remember just how much you felt the grief of Kobe passing, and for most someone we didn’t know personally.
This is the power in energy.
That same energy that was felt today, is the same energy that is found within your beliefs, thoughts, and stories that you hold within your mindset.
If you aspire to chase your dreams and live the life of your choosing you must begin to understand the mindset because it is a POWERFUL place.
It is a powerful energy that is within you and I.
And Kobe knew that.
He knew the power in his beliefs and thoughts and he executed on developing them to allow him to become the GOAT.
Mindset is EVERYTHING and Mindset is Energy.
“I’m reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.” — Kobe Bryant
2.) You and I have no idea when our punch card of life is expired.
NO IDEA.
Some people live to 100, some people pass at birth.
Some people have tragic accidents and some people overdose.
For most, understanding death is not something that is explored. Most people fear death.
But I can tell you that after an experience close to death myself, I went seeking for more meaning in what this was all about.
As the great buddha said
“We should always keep in mind the impermanence of life”
Impermanence = non permanent (the state or fact of lasting for only a limited period of time)
If our life is not permanent then we had better get up everyday and do our best to move in the direction of ours desires.
Just as Kobe did during his 41 years on this planet.
When tragedy strikes to someone of this caliber, we are given an opportunity to remind ourselves that it can be over in a moment and the need to check-in on where and what one is doing in life, is very real.
I felt an immense emotion and thought to check-in with myself and see if I was living my best life.
Am I getting up everyday putting my best foot forward?
Am I pushing through my doubts, fears, and insecurities to move in the direction of my desires?
Am I being the leader I want to be?
Am I making the impact I am here to make?
It is in times like this, that we are provided with a moment from the universe to stop, reflect, and make a decision to course correct if need be.
Something of this magnitude does not happen by accident.
Everything is in Devine timing, even though it can hurt and not make any sense.
We will never know WHY these things have to happen, but I can tell you that when these experiences do happen they offer us more than just losing someone like Kobe, we are offered the chance to make a change in our lives.
And I may not know Kobe personally, but I do know that one of his greatest passions was to inspire.
“The most important thing is to try and inspire people so they can be great in whatever they want to do.”
— Kobe Bryant
And so I hope that you reading this, take a moment today to honour Kobe and his desire to inspire and check-in on your life and see what changes you need to make TODAY.
What changes do you need to make to move closer to your desires and dreams?
Who do you need to forgive?
What mindset shift do you need to have?
As Kobe once said;
“Everything Negative — pressure, CHALLENGES — is all an opportunity for me to RISE”
With the passing of this GOAT, you are being given the opportunity to RISE above this challenge, that he has so greatly given you.
And to close out my reflection of this amazing human beings passing and how today changed my life forever…..
3.) I am currently someone who is moving fiercely in the direction of her dreams.
2.5 years ago I was let go from my last corporate job, which allowed me to take the leap into Entrepreneurship.
2 years ago I launched my dream business, my personal development company — Your Mindset Mentor.
Today, I am writing this as I am able to travel while I work because I busted my ass off for 2 years, day in and day out to make this a reality.
And through that 2 years I had a few of Kobe’s quotes in my mind at all times and when I needed them the most, I wrote them on a sticky note to put on my computer, my desk, and my mirror.
Here are the quotes that I had:
“ There’s a choice that we have to make as people, as individuals. If you want to be great at something there is a choice you have to make. We can all be masters at our craft, but you have to make a choice. What I mean by that is, there are inherent sacrifices that come along with that, family time, hanging out with your friends, being a great friend, being a great son, nephew, whatever the case may be. There are sacrifices that come along with making that decision.” — Kobe Bryant on Sacrifices
“I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you.” — Kobe Bryant
“In high school, I used to show up to practice at 5am, and I would leave at 7pm.”
And the last one
“Those times when you don’t feel like working. You’re too tired. You don’t want to push yourself but you do it anyway. That is actually the dream” — Kobe Bryant
These words from this legend allowed me to push through when few believed in me.
They allowed me to believe in my dreams and that what I was chasing and creating was 100% achievable, as long as I showed up, put in the effort, and didn’t listen to anybody but myself.
The irony for me in this whole experience today and Kobe’s passing is this;
This week I had a call with my mentor who kindly told me I was stuck in an ‘action’ phase and I needed to push into flow mode.
This call happened on Wednesday.
After the call I took some time for purposeful reflection and what I came to realize was I was holding myself back.
There was a part of me that was still operating from lack, fear, and doubt.
I recognized just how much I was not giving it my all.
“How can you possible create the impact you want Danielle if you are afraid, scared, doubtful, and in lack?” I asked myself.
And that one question was the thing that got me moving.
I desire to create large impact through the Mindset work that I do.
In fact, as per the greats of the world, I wrote out at the beginning of my journey that my name was going to be synonymous with mindset and I was going to be responsible for the largest mindset transfer the world had ever seen.
Bold Statement I know.
But when you idolize Greats like Kobe, you realize that that is how they made it happen.
They attach to a higher vision of themselves.
They decide that they are going to be the greatest in whatever they choose to do.
And they show the f*ck up, day in and day out, until they achieve what they want.
“I don’t want to be the next Michael Jordan. I want to be the next Kobe Bryant.” — Kobe Bryant
On Thursday I made a choice to disconnect from the social world till Monday.
I put my head down, put in the effort that was required to stop being in ‘action’ mode and I stepped into ‘flow’.
As I mentioned I had just come off an extremely productive few days and was cruising my way into this ‘flow’ state that I desired.
And then this happened.
And it was like my whole life turned upside down.
How could someone I respected so much and who had a MASSIVE part in my success and growth towards my dreams be gone?
It rattled me. It shook me down.
But once I did come up for a breathe and reflection, I did what Kobe would have done and that is ‘reflect with purpose’.
Was I devastated that he was gone, absolutely. My mentor from a far, was no longer here.
But in that moment of reflection I came across this one quote.
A quote I had never seen before and it was like the universe knew I was ready for it:
“The most important thing is you must put everybody on notice that you’re here and you are for real. I’m not a player that is going to come and go. I’m not a player that is going to make an all-star team one time, two times. I’m here to be an ALL-TIME GREAT. Once I made that commitment and said ‘I want to be one of the greatest ever’, then the game became everything for me’ — Kobe Bryant.
As I was navigating this week to step into my power, purpose, and my next level, this quote and this experience of his passing could not have come into my life and been more divinely guided.
Was I already stepping into my next level of greatness, success, and desires, YES!
But this, this quote gave me the a-ha that I needed.
I am not here to play small.
I am here to play BIG.
I am here to cause a massive ripple and mindset transformation.
I am here to create legacy and impact.
I am here to guide, lead, inspire, and motivate people.
And you better believe after the passing of Kobe Bryant and this reminder that I am allowed to show up in the wholeness that is me, that you WILL SEE A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT VERSION OF ME STARTING RIGHT NOW.
I am not just a mindset mentor.
I am the best damn mindset mentor this world has ever experienced.
I am not going to impact 100,000 people, I am going to impact billions of people.
I had made this commitment to myself at the beginning of my journey and my ego mindset, my limitations, my doubts, my fears have not allowed me to continue to step into that place fully.
But that all ends today.
As of right now, I declare I AM GOING TO BE THE GREATEST MINDSET MENTOR THIS WORLD HAS SEEN.
Kobe’s determination, drive, effort, laser focus, and everything else that encompassed this man will forever live on for years and years.
As we all say goodbye to one of THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME, we must reflect on his accomplishments, what he has taught us, and how he inspired us.
We owe it to not only ourselves, but to Kobe to step into our greatness.
To chase our dreams.
To show up and do the work.
And to not let anybody tell you otherwise.
I will continue to allow Kobe’s words and energetic soul to inspire me, to push me forward, and to allow me to believe that I can be THE GREATEST MINDSET MENTOR OF ALL TIME.
In closing, I would like to challenge you, as the great one did when he was here, to decide today that you are going to start making changes, and start taking action towards the things that light you up, towards your purpose, your passion, and your dreams.
To those of us still here, who know we are meant for more, let’s continue to move fiercely towards the directions of our desires and dreams for Kobe has shown us what is possible and just what we are truly capable of becoming.
RIP KOBE BRYANT — you will be forever missed but NEVER forgotten.
May you be shooting hoops with your daughter, wherever you are right now.
If you are ready and want to learn how your mindset is controlling your life, keeping you stuck, and holding you back,
And you want to step into the greatness that is you, create the business, life, health, and relationships that you desire,
Hit me up on here.
Or connect:
And I will let you know how my programs, my mentoring, the knowledge that I am sharing, 100% has the ability to radically transform your life and allow you to step into your desires and dreams.
Or check out my podcast — The Mind Vibe, where I am sharing all things Mindset, Entrepreneurship, and Spirituality.
“If you don’t show up for yourself, who will?”
“Who is holding you back? You or You”
