Wisdom from Kennedy

John F Kennedy our 35th president had a commencement address at the university of California in March of 1962. When speaking on education he said..

”In its light we must think and act not only for the moment but for our time. I am reminded of the story of the great French Marshal Lyautey, who once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow-growing and would not reach maturity for a hundred years. The Marshal replied, ‘In that case, there is no time to lose, plant it this afternoon…” 

Kennedy wrapped up his speech by saying:

“Today a world of knowledge—a world of cooperation—a just and lasting peace—may be years away. But we have no time to lose. Let us plant our trees this afternoon.”

This perspective has never been more important. In many ways we are trained to expect immediate results prime shipping, binging Netflix, bored for a second well then just check your phone... but for
the important stuff it takes time. It always has and likely always will. You have to plant tree knowing that you won’t see it at its greatest height for years, you have to water the tree daily, and sometimes you even have to prune the tree. The work in never done and there will always be new tree’s to plant.

What does this mean for a basketball player? It takes time to be great. You might have to shoot 500 shots today knowing you won’t see a difference in your game shooting for months. What do you have to do tomorrow, the next, and the date after that.. Continue to water the tree ( 500 more shots day after day). Anything that’s worth something takes time... what tree will you be planting today? Grab your shovel, let’s go!