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Dennis Stanton fell in love with basketball at an early age. He had his ups and downs with the sport, but his senior year in college, he was an All American and led the nation in scoring. He played professionally in Europe. He is an athletic director at Souderton Area High School, as well as the founder of Every Level Basketball, where he trains thousands of kids every year. The context may be basketball, but trust me, what he’s teaching is life skills.
Contact
Shoot to Make Podcast on Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shoot-to-make/id1504734797
Dennis Stanton on LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/dennis-stanton-75b00858
Dennis Stanton on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/dennis.stanton.96
Every Level Basketball - https://www.everylevelbasketball.com/
Every Level Basketball on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/everylevelbball/
Every Level Basketball on Twitter - https://twitter.com/EveryLevelBball @EveryLevelBball
Here is a video of Dennis explaining the importance of being all in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfRUYUNkbpM
Mentioned in this Episode
Souderton Area High School - https://sahs.soudertonsd.org/
Pat Carroll on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pat-carroll-6a237625
Every Level Basketball - https://www.everylevelbasketball.com/
Bobbi’s Takeaways from the Episode
I was scribbling notes as fast as I could during that interview, I hope that you felt like that was a real shot in the arm.
I know that I did. Here are some of my standout takeaways.
1. Skill acquisition and mastery is about consistent and deliberate practice. And you have to fall in love with the practice.
2. Practice your response to failure. What I particularly loved about that is that you don't have to be a victim of your response to failure. You can be the architect of it. Related to that. Dennis talked about having a mistake ritual so that you can move on and put it behind you instead of judging it and feeling bad about it. So often failure sticks with us because we judge it instead, instead of simply accepting it for what it is. It's just a part of the process.
3. As a leader and coach, you need to demonstrate vulnerability because ego is the enemy of effective coaching. I've coached more than 3000 people in my career, and this one stands out to me because that is so true. Vulnerability, not ego is king.
4. When we buffer the failure of another person, whether our child, a member of our team, or a member of our family, we cheat them out of the growth that can come from the feeling of failure.
5. Sometimes a failure sets us up for our next big success.
6. Embrace the squiggles. I love the imagery! Our lives are a journey. They're not always linear and that's okay. Embrace it.
7. Give more than you get.
8. Be a warrior, not a worrier.
9. Choose to be “all in.” Dennis said he believes that there are two main things that keep people from deciding to be all in: one, caring about what other people think, and two, being afraid to fail. He said that to be all in and work past these two barriers, you need to relinquish yourself to the process, and don't worry about the result. Focus on and relish the process.
