Honestly right, I'm probably the stereotypical INFJ, both in my better as well as in my worst moments.

But I was thinking, it's pretty cool that people try to type athletes based on their public behaviour and private news. And I've been trying to understand Kobe's mentality for the last week or so. I don't get it.

I don't understand how somebody can want to win so much that they fulfil it with clutch performances.
Yet, at the same time cope so well with failing.

He said, "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot, and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed."

I don't understand. I mean, yes, many times I am able to psych myself into succeeding despite failing, to convert all my pressure and doubt into the drive to excel. And a lot of the time, it works. On my standards anyway.

But as I'm sure all of you would know first-hand ( hey, who doesn't), it's not easy to persist. It's not easy and I don't understand how a high-level high-profile athlete can suffer failure after failure after failure and not show the strain on the surface. He makes it look so simple and so "Okay, I'm gonna do this though I missed the last one" and swish, in it goes. All these people at the top of the field, they all have one thing in common: they hate losing. But they fight back. And they have so much confidence - borders on arrogance, even - but they believe in themselves and I don't see how they can continue, no matter how many losses they take.

Where does that strength come from?

Apparently a lot of people speculate that Kobe's an INFP/ISTP. And I'm wondering what sets him apart from the rest of everybody.

It's in the mindset, I think.

Labels: oth, qu, vid