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Using Anger to Motivate
With a pandemic as backdrop, I am watching The Last Dance, the ESPN series about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
At one point, Jordan tells the story of Seattle Supersonics coach George Karl walking by him in a restaurant without acknowledging him. They knew each other socially, had played golf. It was right before the 1996 NBA Finals where the Bulls and Sonics would meet.
“ … That’s all I needed,” says Jordan to his dining companion, Ahmad Rashad.
The Bulls won the series four games to two that year thanks in part to Jordan’s stepped-up scoring and defense.
It was just one story in an ongoing pattern for Jordan, who consistently motivated himself using anger. Someone talks smack? Or a writer rips his performance? It becomes fuel.
Kind of textbook, but not just of the basketball sort.
As it happens, I am currently teaching the iconic and bestselling The Artist’s Way, a book by Julia Cameron designed to help us discover and/or recover our creative selves. In chapter three, called Recovering a Sense of Power, she begins with the concept of anger.
“Anger is a map,” Cameron writes. “Anger shows us what our boundaries are. Anger shows us where we want to go. It lets us see where we’ve been and lets us know when we haven’t liked it. Anger points the…