5 min read · Feb 16, 2022
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It’s time you achieved your life’s full potential.
Kobe Bryant is a five-time NBA champion, 17 time NBA all-star, and a Lakers legend. He garnered world fame not only for his accomplishments but because of his relentless work ethic and his self dubbed ‘mamba’ mentality.
Kobe said, “When I see people talk about finding inspiration in the Mamba Mentality, it makes all my hard work, all the sweat, all the 3 AM wakeups, feel worth it”
Here are 13 quotes to help inspire you to live and embrace the mamba mentality.
- “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.”
Laziness will hold you back from succeeding in life. You’ll never know your full potential or what you can accomplish unless you embrace the hard work. It’s time to get up, get to work, and get the job done.
2. “We psych ourselves up too much. Like if you try to talk yourself into, ‘Oh, this is a big moment, this is a big shot,’ you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself. You shot that shot hundreds and thousands of times. Just shoot another one.”
There’s no point in putting pressure on yourself when things get tense. Just do what you’ve practiced and prepared for, get it done, and continue onward.
3. “Pain doesn’t tell you when you ought to stop. Pain is the little voice in your head that tries to hold you back because it knows if you continue you will change.”
What can you accomplish if you push through the pain? Going through the pain is when you will see the change.
4. “I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena and I’m like, ‘My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don’t have it. I just want to chill.’ We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it.”
Even Kobe had self-doubt and insecurities. It doesn’t make your talents any less than they are because you are nervous. Embrace them and move on by not dwelling or fearing them.
5. “The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.”
Do you inspire those around you? Family, work, friends, colleagues. Become an inspiration to them and help those around you succeed.
6. “When we are saying this cannot be accomplished, this cannot be done, then we are short-changing ourselves. My brain, it cannot process failure. It will not process failure. Because if I have to sit there and face myself and tell myself ‘you are a failure,’ I think that is almost worse than dying.”
Set your goals no matter how small or how big. Don’t doubt yourself. Don’t short-change your potential and your success by giving up.
7. “There’s nothing truly to be afraid of, when you think about it, because I’ve failed before, and I woke up the next morning, and I’m OK.”
As bad as failure may seem in the moment, the sun will always set and always rise. You’ll always wake up the following day and realize life doesn’t stop, and it’s not that bad.
8. “The last time I was intimidated was when I was 6 years old in karate class. I was an orange belt and the instructor ordered me to fight a black belt who was a couple of years older and a lot bigger. I was scared s — less. I mean, I was terrified and he kicked my ass. But then I realized he didn’t kick my ass as bad as I thought he was going to and that there was nothing really to be afraid of. That was around the time I realized that intimidation didn’t really exist if you’re in the right frame of mind.”
Intimidation and fear are in our minds. The ‘scary’ moment will pass, and after we get through it, we will realize nothing has changed. All the fear and anxiety were just our minds scaring us. Sometimes our own thoughts can be our worst enemy.
9. “If you’re afraid to fail, then you’re probably going to fail.”
Just do it! Live life. Have fun. Take risks. Don’t worry about failing because you will either never start, or you’ll just give up after your first taste of failure.
10. “If you do not believe in yourself, no one will do it for you.”
You’re responsible for your own decisions. Believe in yourself and forget about the naysayers.
11. “Have a good time. Enjoy life. Life is too short to get bogged down and be discouraged. You have to keep moving. You have to keep going. Put one foot in front of the other, smile and just keep on rolling.”
Life is supposed to be enjoyed. Brush off any discouragement and keep moving forward. Don’t let life pass us by, and don’t live with resentment in the future because you didn’t enjoy the present.
12. “I’ve played with IVs before, during and after games. I’ve played with a broken hand, a sprained ankle, a torn shoulder, a fractured tooth, a severed lip, and a knee the size of a softball. I don’t miss 15 games because of a toe injury that everybody knows wasn’t that serious in the first place.”
How bad are you willing to commit? Are you ready to overcome your limitations and obstacles? How bad do you want it?
13. “I would go 0-for-30 [from the floor] before I would go 0-for-9. [An] 0-for-9 means you beat yourself, you psyched yourself out of the game. … The only reason is because you’ve just now lost confidence in yourself.”
Don’t fear failure. Don’t be afraid to miss and mess up. The moment we give up after failing is when we lose our confidence. No matter how many times we fail, keep failing, until we succeed.
