For the people who know me well, they know I am watching the NBA playoffs.  Especially because my beloved Cleveland Cavaliers are still in the mix for the title (could this be the year?).  Of all the players in the NBA, two are left in the playoffs that I love watching play probably more than any players in the NBA.  A healthy Kyrie Irving and Steph Curry are both great TV.  I want to leverage Curry to drive home a principle that is so much bigger than sports.

Steph Curry is a stupid-good shooter.  I mean stupid-good.  He makes the skill of shooting the ball from long-range look effortless and easy.  And his ball skills, both passing and dribbling, are just incredible.  I mean stupid-good incredible.  And when you look at his body type, he should not be an elite NBA player.  In an league dominated by freaks of human nature and silly athleticism, Steph is not crazy tall and is slight of frame.  So how was he the NBA MVP and how has he become so amazing to watch and how has he developed the game he has?

The answer in short is this:  he is stupid-good because and he has a stupid-good work ethic.  I watched a video a short time ago talking about how Steph was not highly recruited out of high school.  When he would go to camps for elite level guards, he was not well-known or highly ranked.  He was not offered many scholarships and ended up at a mid-major in Davidson (which is still a really big deal).  But no one saw him as a star at basketball’s highest level.  But in the video I watched, it talked about how he got there before the other kids to work on his game.  He stayed late.  He corrected his mistakes on his own.  He got up shots when no else did.  Legend has it he would not leave the gym every day until he made 5 free throws in a row that did not hit any part of the rim at all.

What is my point? Alright if you are still with me even if you are not a fan of athletics, here is the deal:  Many of us have plans, dreams, wants for the future.  But here is the thing:  are your future dreams reflected in your current habits?  You are not going to be stupid-good at anything later if you are not working stupid-hard now.  Efficiency and business experts have said it for years: greatness is a choice.  Sure, talent and circumstances play into what happens.  But are you willing to pay the price?

This is true with any area of your life.  Your parenting, your marriage, your weight, your career, your Bible understanding, your charitable impact, and so on are all going to have a footprint later based on the habits you have now.  So go get stupid-good.