Steph Curry, Braveheart, & Stand-Up Comedy

The Mindset That Pays Off Again & Again (Comedy Mindhacks #10)

Several months ago, I got to attend a Golden State Warriors game. I’ve been a fan for more than a decade. My kids are into the Warriors, too. #DadWin Here’s what I didn’t expect: watching Steph Curry’s pregame routine was more thrilling than the game itself. He starts with shots no one could call impressive if they blinked. He begins with a string of “bunnies,” as we call ‘em. They’re easy layup makes. Then he inches back a few steps at a time until suddenly he’s draining half-court heaves like they’re free throws. It might just be the purest lesson in baby steps I’ve ever seen. The way he stacks tiny wins to build something astonishing is…astonishing.

I read recently that screenwriter Randall Wallace, the guy who wrote Braveheart, does something similar. He treats his mornings as a routine of small successes. He wakes up and conquers the day by ticking off small tasks: brushing his teeth, showering, getting dressed, etc. He gets his brain in to-do-list mode. Now, while those actions feel mundane to most people, to him they are victories, tiny affirmations that today will not defeat him before breakfast.

That’s how I want to be and strive to be. I mean, as a comedian and writer, I try posting here every day and one of the reasons is: it feels like a win. If I can get something posted, no matter what it is, I feel like I’ve won at least one battle before the sun sets in and spares me from exploding from carrying around a mental grenade of half-thoughts.

As a joke writer, I know this is true. The little successes matter just as much as the big ones. Sitting down at my desk is a success. Opening a blank document is another success. Writing a single sentence is a success. Discovering a decent premise and jotting it down feels like planting a flag on a new territory. And if I get stuck before the punchline, that’s ok because I have already racked up half a dozen wins before even dialing in the joke.

On stage, this mindset pays off again and again. Stepping up to the mic is a success in itself, especially when the tech gods haven’t cursed the sound system. Grabbing the mic without tripping over the stand counts as success too, and so does landing that first laugh no matter how small. Recording the set, uploading it to the cloud, and sending the link to a booker are each success markers on the journey. By tallying these wins, I avoid the rut where I can easily but unsuccessfully just spin my wheels.

The little successes, of course, apply far beyond comedy. My son joined a high-sports program recently that looks and feels like boot camp for giants while he towers somewhere around hobbit size. He showed up, practiced, pushed through frustration, then got back up after stumbling. Every step, literally and figuratively, was in my view a success. My daughter moved to a new town and struck up a conversation with a peer she barely knew. She messaged, met up, and laughed together all within a week. Each of those moments was a win even before friendship bloomed.

When we train ourselves to be intentional about noticing these small victories and calling them that, we feed our momentum like kindling under a campfire. We move from, as I said in a recent post, the mindset of “I have to write something” to “I have something to write.” Or, as a comedian, we move from “I have to perform something” to “I have something to perform.” Here’s my point: little successes are the unsung heroes of every major breakthrough and the antidote to feeling stuck. So, keep counting them, keep celebrating them, and watch how they stack up to make something big. You matter. So do they.