The 'Anything Is Possible!!!' Mindset

I think the man Kevin Garnett said it best in his courtside interview after his Boston Celtics won the NBA championship a couple of years ago.

Everything around him was bedlam. Confetti fell from the ceiling as, everywhere, fans stood applauding or took the opportunity to soak in the moment. Players hugged each other as antsy members of the media vied for interviews; eventually, one of them caught up with Garnett.

"Man, I'm so, I'm so hyped right now... anything is possible," he said, before shouting at the top of his lungs, "ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!"



It was a triumphant, euphoric moment, the beauty of which was that, unlike so many other athletes, KG didn't attempt to censor himself. He spoke from the heart, and the results were legendary.

I didn't quite win an NBA championship last night, but I did have my own "Anything is Possible" moment on the treadmill yesterday.

My whole life I've been a poor long distance runner. I've always been athletic, but I'm also a very big guy, and I'm accustomed to finishing the near the bottom of any competitive long-distance run. My asthma has also complicated things.

All of which is to say that there's a certain amount of psychological baggage I bring with me when I step on the treadmill. That often translated into a feeling that I "couldn't" run more than 30-35 minutes straight (for most of my life I've settled for 25 minutes), or "couldn't" do more than 4 miles.

More recently though I've been trying to adjust my mindset when I step on the treadmill. This is largely thanks to Little Miss Citi, whose participation in the Jack Rabbit club of New York City has led her on runs of 60 minutes or more.

I haven't quite reached that level, but yesterday I reached two milestones that I would have never thought I could acheive. Around lunch time I set a goal: 45 minutes, 5 miles. Why couldn't I?

It wasn't easy. I was sore from a 40-minute run on Tuesday, and again, there was the psychological component. But as 45 minutes dwindled away, I found the energy to near-sprint the final 3 minutes.

When I was done, as I did my cool down, another KG quote came to mind. It's too long to transcribe so I'll let the man say it himself:



Tired but fulfilled, it was like I'd just knocked that bully out. 

* * * * * 

It makes me think about the Mets. I wonder who on the Mets takes an "Anything is Possible!!!" approach to the game.

The one guy I feel certain plays like that is Johan Santana, but what about the rest of them?

Maybe it's just the past few years talking. Certainly, I wouldn't have questioned it after 2006. But this isn't "after 2006" anymore. This is after 2007, 2008, and 2009.

What we need is a team that believes it can accomplish anything, a team that isn't obsessed with a fear of failure. That starts with guys like Wright and Beltran and Reyes getting that hunger to "lay that bully's ass out". I'm not sure they've had that the past few years.

In 2010 and beyond, their "bully" is the cumulative failure that began with Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS. Let's hope someday they get to knock that bully out.

- A.F.O.M.G.