8

Meaningful Distraction

For years I’ve been stealing a line of Woody Allen’s and giving it my own twist. Woody is a huge New York Knicks fan and attends a ton of games. One time, somebody asked him what being a Knicks fan meant to him, and he said it was a “meaningless distraction.” Over the years, as I’ve coached teams and interacted with fans and drawn from my own experience, I’ve come to the conclusion that for many of us, sports are not a meaningless distraction, but a meaningful one. As a coach, I’ve seen countless examples of sports enriching the lives of people, whether it was people, even children, with severe illnesses, or just people involved in difficult day-to-day situations who drew enjoyment, escape, and even inspiration from following a favorite team or sport.

This is an important principle in maintaining focus and keeping your edge over a sustained period. You have to find ways to get away, to relieve the stress of your constant striving. If you’re working with full commitment toward excellence in your job and life, then you not only deserve to get away from it all at times, you need it. Meaningful distractions are not a luxury in life, they are a necessity.

We’ve talked in this book about several kinds of destructive distractions—things that take you away from your task at hand for no good purpose. We discussed it at length in the chapter on technology. That’s not the kind of distraction we’re talking about here.

A meaningful distraction is one that brings you enjoyment and leaves you with more energy when you take part in it. It is completely separate from your job. It could be anything—a hobby, a pastime, the arts, reading, writing, music, fitness, for some it is philanthropy or public service—whatever removes you, even for just a few moments, from your present trials, gives you enjoyment, then allows you to come back to the job refreshed and recharged. Meaningful distractions help you stay on top of your game.

During our national championship run, everyone talked about how great our team chemistry was. I felt that a trip we took to play some preseason games in the Bahamas in August of 2012 was the start of not only re-creating our brand, but of all that great chemistry. Our players got away and had a chance to interact with all our coaches and their families in a nonbasketball setting. They interacted with each other in water sports, fishing, snorkeling, and other things, and from the standpoint of us as coaches getting to know the players and them getting to know each other in a different light, that trip played an important role. It starts with something like that, just a one-week trip, and they came back with a totally different feeling about their teammates and coaches.

The benefit of hobbies or other kinds of meaningful distractions is well documented. People with well-established hobbies are generally healthier and less likely to develop depression. Dr. Michael Brickey, in his book Defy Aging, says hobbies (meaningful distractions) are a key component in staying mentally young. He says ideal hobbies are those that develop into a certain expertise over time, activities that draw on passions already within us, and those that connect us with other people.

I’ll give you an example from my life. It’s no secret that I dabble in the horse industry. For me, it’s the perfect meaningful distraction. Horses don’t race very often. If you’re lucky, your horse will race once a month—if he is healthy—and they don’t run twelve months a year. Obviously, during the season, I don’t have time to go to California or Florida to see a horse of mine run. But I can turn on my computer, watch a two-minute race, and be removed for a short while. In that time, I’m caught up in the horse, how he’s doing, whether he’s a long shot or favorite, and when it’s over I celebrate the win or shake my head at the loss, but I’m not affected one way or the other by the outcome because it’s a pastime, not a life’s work.

During the national championship run, a horse I own a stake in, Goldencents, won the Santa Anita Derby to reach the Kentucky Derby, where he became one of the favorites. When I got back to Louisville, reporters were asking all kinds of questions about next season, and I finally had to put on the brakes. I told them we had ten days of Kentucky Derby activities, and then the race itself, and I was going to really enjoy that. Over the summer, I’ll start rolling again and figuring out offenses and defenses and the wheels will start turning. But I needed to enjoy the championship and that Derby experience.

And the Derby was a blast. The anticipation of the race, the experience of sharing it with friends and family, and all the festivities surrounding it were not only very exciting, but as much fun as I’ve had at any Derby. It led up to the race on a rainy day with a muddy track. Our trainers thought the conditions would certainly help our horse, being a front-runner. But he struggled mightily, and had mud kicked in his face, which he did not enjoy. I don’t know how that is possible! I guess if we were having mud kicked in our faces, we’d understand. After the race, people kept apologizing and felt bad for our dismal results. I just laughed, had another mint julep, and said, “This is not my vocation. This is my vacation, and my hobby.” And we just laughed and continued to have a good time. This is what a meaningful distraction is all about, getting away from the rigors and pressures of your everyday vocation, and it was a great getaway for ten days.

Through horse racing, I’ve been able to meet so many tremendous people, to not only make friends, but to share the experience of going to the races with friends and family. It has connected me with many people, and gives me something to look forward to whether things are going well with basketball or not. People kept asking me what it would have meant to win the Derby. It would’ve been great. But the reward of an experience like that is the entire process. Having friends into town and renewing relationships; throwing the Derby party; telling stories and making new memories. That’s the reward of the Derby. It’s different from basketball, which is my job and life’s passion.

Now, you may not have the Kentucky Derby. But there is something you have, an interest, a love, something that draws your attention or intellect like no other thing. It may have nothing to do with your field of work or study. You might be a corporate executive who loves going to plays or restoring old cars. Whatever that distraction is, it becomes valuable when you give it meaning.

It is important for all of us, I think, to be a fan of something. It makes us a participant in the game of life. Idleness leads us astray, especially in this day of proliferating distractions. It puts us into a state of mind that’s not healthy. Having that distraction leads us back to the life we all want; that great pressure that leads us to prominence.

I want you to think about something. After national tragedies, whether it has been 9/11 or the Boston Marathon bombing, what were some of the most moving public events after those awful occurrences? I think you’ll find that many were at sporting events. The moments of silence. Crowds singing “God Bless America” after the 9/11 attacks. The Fenway Park rendition of the national anthem after the marathon bombing, with all 32,000 people singing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” was very moving. These show the positive sides of sports, their power to give people a positive outlet for expression, to rally around something, to feel like part of something big and meaningful. After these tragic events, our patriotism and love of country come out more than ever. You can’t tell me, if you’ve ever been amid such a crowd, that sports are meaningless.

In fact, not even Woody Allen would make that argument anymore. In 2012 the subject came up again in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. In this interview, Allen revised his statement on his view of sports as distraction. He told the Journal, “The Knicks are one kind of distraction. For the two hours you’re at the Garden you’re only focused on that. I follow them. I go. I have been a season-ticket holder for many years. They have not been very exciting. It was a nice little flurry for a while but then [Jeremy Lin] got hurt, so we’ll see what happens next year. I am a big sports fan, baseball and basketball, everything. People will say to me, ‘Does it really matter if the Knicks beat the Celtics?’ And I think to myself, ‘Well, it’s just as important as human existence.’”

He went on to explain himself, and he did so by saying he has an idea for a movie about two directors—one who makes comedies or musicals, and another who is focused on very serious, high-minded, confrontational dramatic subjects that take on society’s biggest issues. There might have been a time when he thought, like most people, that the director who was putting out serious content was doing the more important work. But now he’s not so sure.

“You are living this terrible life,” he told the paper. “It’s hot. It’s sunny. The summertime is awful. Life is miserable. You duck into the movie house. It’s dark. It’s cold. It’s pleasurable. You watch Fred Astaire dance for an hour and a half. And it’s great. You can go out and face life, based on the refreshment factor. If you see the confrontational film, you have a different experience and it seems more substantive but I am not sure it does as much for you as the refreshment. A couple of laughs, a couple of dance numbers, and you forget all that garbage for an hour and a half.”

In the end, Allen said, who is to say which is more meaningful? That’s my feeling, too.

I’m proud of my players for winning a national championship. I’m more proud of the fact that if you look at them individually, you can learn something positive from the way every one of them developed and persevered over the course of a season or a career. If you followed our team this season, you encountered Peyton Siva as a person and saw the kind of quality he exhibits, and you learned about his life from numerous media accounts. You watched him play as a point guard, always striving to make his teammates better, but you also read about his life in the many media accounts of his backstory, learning that Peyton is the kind of person who tries to lift everyone up, that his assists are not limited to the basketball court.

I can go right down the line on that basketball team. Russ Smith, Gorgui Dieng, Luke Hancock, Kevin Ware, many of their stories are at various places in this book because all of them have a compelling story to tell and, whether they won games or lost them, you had to come away impressed with who they are and the effort they were putting forth. As a fan, I would hope that following this team gave you much more than just a good or a bad feeling after a win or a loss.

Frankly, if it’s just about the wins and losses, if that’s all that matters as you’re sitting in the stands, I think you’re missing something. There is a type of sports fan for whom players are simply robots in uniforms. They aren’t real people. It’s all about being on the right end of the score so that you can feel better about yourself and maybe rub it in with the people at work. And all that is part of sports, I know. But you shouldn’t feel any less self-worth if your team loses a game. I remember a funny situation with a caller to my Big Blue Line radio show while coach at Kentucky. The fan told me he was breaking down video and saw certain things in our offense with underneath out-of-bounds plays and had a few ideas. I interrupted him and asked if he was married. He was. I said, “Okay tonight, instead of breaking down film, open up a bottle of wine, snuggle up to your wife in front of the fireplace, and just see where that takes you.” He called me the next week and told me he opened the wine, put the chairman of the board, Frank Sinatra, on, and snuggled up to his wife, and after a short while he couldn’t resist. He got back to his game tapes and had some ideas about our future games. This gentleman is what we call a fanatic. They take it to a new level. It was extremely funny, but unfortunately, or fortunately, we have many of these who follow Louisville basketball, too.

There’s a certain segment of fans today who show up at the game to take out their aggression and hostility. It’s not healthy. If you feel the need to berate a college player, or even coaches, there’s something wrong that needs to be addressed. If you feel the need to get on referees—well, that’s all right. I’m kidding. But I can’t blame people. I’ve gotten on a referee or two myself. Here’s the takeaway—the goal of being a sports fan should be meaningful distraction. Sports should enrich your life. I’ve had restaurant owners and business owners tell me that if Louisville or Kentucky loses a game, the receipts are going to be lower that night. There’s anecdotal evidence all over the state. If the home team loses, you might see fewer people at church, fewer people at the malls, fewer people out eating, managers might know that productivity won’t be as high the next day.

People tell me that in this town there are radio shows totally devoted to denigrating our university. When I was at Kentucky there was a radio personality named Jock Sutherland, who Bill Keightley, our longtime Kentucky equipment manager, appropriately nicknamed “Mr. Wildcat,” used to fume over. And I would ask Bill, “Why would you listen to something that makes you irate? That lacks common sense.” He couldn’t explain why, but it would boil him until his face turned red. He’d say, “You just don’t understand this Jock Sutherland.” And I’d tell him not only did I not understand him, but I didn’t want to listen to him. I don’t want to get in a bad mood. I don’t want to get upset at a man I don’t even know. Why would Bill listen to a man who would denigrate Kentucky basketball around the clock? But there are fans here in Louisville who will do the same thing with a host that denigrates Louisville basketball. And all I can say is, “Why do you listen?” And fans will answer me, “I’d like to punch that guy right in the nose.” I can only ask them, why would you feel that about somebody you don’t even know? And more than that, why do you even listen if he makes you feel that way? It doesn’t make sense. That’s not what being a fan is all about, working yourself up until you want to hit someone. It’s about raising your self-esteem, coming away happy, and feeling like you’re part of a worthwhile effort.

I’ve never seen our town, and our fans, so together as after our national championship. I’ve never seen anything like it. Yes, it’s been twenty-seven years in coming, but that’s not the entire story. I think they really enjoyed seeing our group of guys playing this Louisville First brand of basketball and displaying all of the great attributes that we saw from them. I think they came away with a special feeling for this group, and rightfully so. I think our team played the game for the right reasons. And as our fans gathered in celebration, they realized what this team was all about and they thoroughly enjoyed it. That is truly a meaningful distraction. From the Big East Tournament title to the national championship, our fans get to celebrate these accomplishments for 365 days. Why fans would go the other way and look for things to be upset about is beyond me. If you want sports to be a meaningful distraction, look for all the positives in sports.

There are so many examples, however, of fans going the other way. I’ve seen just about everything in sports. We’ve all seen stories of fans behaving badly, and not just at pro sports events, but also at college and high school. There are some who will spew the most venomous language and behavior you can imagine. It’s almost, for some, an acceptable forum in which to espouse hatred. But for me, sports need to be about the relationships you build over years and years of being a fan. They need to be about feeling like you’re part of the process, so that when your team is down, you want to do something to lift them up, rather than do something to put the players down even more. They need to be about learning from victory and defeat, and whatever happens, going back to your work and family and life feeling energized, not demoralized.

As the price of tickets increases, people more and more feel that they have the right to abuse the players on the court or the coaches. As a coach, I accept that. I’m paid to handle all of that and still do my job. I would just hope that more fans would view their allegiances as a meaningful distraction in their life, and to treat them that way, as something that makes their lives richer.

There’s one more kind of meaningful distraction I want to discuss. In the chapter on focus, I mentioned some studies out of Harvard that showed even a small break every two or three hours can increase a worker’s productivity. Well, that also holds true on a larger scale. To stay at the top of your game, it’s best to figure out a way to take extended time away from work to refresh and recharge the batteries.

Your life has to consist of a diverse portfolio. Any financial planner will tell you that you can’t have all your money in one place. The same thing is true of the human body and how it works. There are so many people throughout history who have burned themselves out. The coaching profession is full of them. Your body is just like an automobile. The parts get worn down when they’re driven too hard. You certainly want to be passionate. You certainly want to uncover everything available to have a successful team or business, but you must take time away, and it must happen with people who are going to lift up your spirits and emotions. Surrounding yourself with positive energy and people is essential when you do take time away. The opposite—negative energy, cynical people—will just drag you down and that time away will be nothing but misery for you.

When the season comes to an end, I will take all my children and wife to something special. This year we’re going out to California, to Los Angeles, then Santa Barbara, and we’ll take eight to ten days as a family. I save all year for this and we go overboard. I do that with family members. I take two vacations, the first with family members, who have helped and sacrificed for me throughout the year, even the grown children. Last year I took my sons on a golfing trip and all the girls wanted to go to Paris, and they went by themselves. And later in the summer, I make sure I take two days here and there with guys I work with, our trainer, my assistant, our sports information director, and I’ll take them on a weekend trip. Then I’ll take a few other guys to Del Mar or Saratoga and give them four or five days as my treat. These are people who put in the time right alongside you, but don’t get the financial gains.

Some people can be generous with money, but generosity is more than just the trickle-down effect of making sure people are taken care of financially. Generosity also is the act of making sure people have a great time. You have to be generous with your time when you are able. It’s important for me to get people away from the workplace, to talk to them about what they might like to see different with their jobs and what would help them perform better daily. In doing that, I am able to learn what their needs are, but also to see that they have a good time, enhancing their meaningful distraction, so that they can come back to work energized. We talk about family. If we talk about work, it’s usually just to talk about something we can laugh about, but I definitely get the input to make our workplace better the following year. All of these times away give you something to look back on fondly when work gets stressful, and they also can give you something to look forward to if you’re committed to saving for them. It’s one thing to hand somebody a check. But being generous with your time is just as important.

It’s also important to take time away for your own health. A lot of people think the most important thing is rest and recuperation. The way we go at it, twelve- to fourteen-hour days, with great intensity, that time away is essential.

I play golf, but I don’t look forward to playing golf. For me, the best thing is every summer I take two weeks and go to Del Mar or Saratoga, and I will just spend most of my time people watching. I enjoy the characters at a racetrack. I love to watch people yelling at television screens. I love hearing the excuses after a horse doesn’t come in. I just sit there for nine races, and just go around and laugh with the bartenders or the waiters and waitresses who’ve heard it all. When the race is over I listen to all the explanations. A good friend of mine, Joe Iracane, after every single race has this elaborate story about how he could have made a killing. I tell him I could’ve made a killing if I’d had tomorrow’s newspaper today. But he’s been doing this for fifteen years, and we all laugh about it. For me, it all goes back to laughter, more even than sleep and rest. When I take time to get away, I want to create laughter in my life. I’ll invite someone like my great friend Ralph Willard, who was an assistant coach of mine with the Knicks and Kentucky, as well as Louisville. We have laughed together for forty-three years. Whether it’s on a daily basis or a weekend away, creating laughter can make all the difference.

I even turn fund-raising trips into occasions of laughter. I do about ten trips a year that are auctioned off for us to fund-raise for our basketball program. On 50 percent of those trips I take along people with whom I wind up building future friendships in addition to adding supporters for Louisville basketball. It’s not a chore for me. Meeting different people and sharing experiences with them is also a good learning tool for me. I never get tired of these experiences. When you do get away, you can’t let the people you’re with make it feel like it’s a burden to you. Enjoy what you are doing. Go overboard and you build support for your effort.

And what’s true for me in terms of getting away also is true for our players. They need time off. I am deeply concerned because the AAU circuit has guys playing year-round without a letup. I suspect so many knee injuries today are from chronic overuse. You can’t play three games in one day, with two hours’ rest. The AAU circuit is putting wear and tear on their bodies, so that by the time a lot of these players get to the NBA, if they make it, they have older bodies. It is essential for players to get off their legs. And what’s true for them physically also is true mentally. There’s a breakdown that occurs when it’s game after game after game. Our guys take three weeks completely off, and when they come back we encourage them to do thirty-five to forty minutes in the weight room and thirty-five to forty minutes of skill work, but I don’t want them pounding their legs playing a lot of games, because the season is going to do that for them. We build in time off for our players during the season and during the offseason. When we travel during the season, we try to take time to talk to them about everything, to have an environment of laughter, when it’s the right time to laugh, and to be serious when it’s the right time to be serious. Young people today have no shortage of distractions, but we do try to give them time away from the demands of basketball, too.

Now, I understand. Most people are not going to own horses. Maybe your resources are such that you can’t take people on trips for days at a time. The principles, however, are no less true. You can develop your own meaningful distractions. You can be generous with your time with the people around you. It might not be a weekend away. Maybe it’s one night and a round of golf. Whatever the case, finding time for your mind and body to be away from the demands of work, and trying to help those around you to do the same, is a major tool in maintaining the kind of focus you need to succeed.

There is no question, taking time away and cultivating meaningful distractions make you better at your job. They keep the stress of work from wearing out your body and mind. Every time the president goes on vacation, people criticize him. But with the demands of that job, if he did not get away, you’d have a worn-out man leading the country, and we don’t want that from our president. We should be encouraging the leader of our country to get away with his family from time to time. If you don’t take time away, you will succumb to burnout. You will see your passion wane. You’ll mentally drain yourself and it won’t be fun anymore.

If you are a tired, worn-out person, you look at adversity differently. You become demoralized more easily. Not only is this kind of distraction important for your focus, it’s important for your ability to get out of difficult times when they do strike. A tired, fatigued person makes mistakes. So look at your life. Examine your passions and opportunities for time away. They are not just luxuries you hope to make “extras” in your life if you find time. They actually are necessities that you must carve out time and money for, as much as possible. Once you return from these meaningful distractions, you’re excited and eager to get back to work. They can be the times that stir your passion and give you the spark to achieve all those goals you want to accomplish.