With the new year passing just a couple of weeks ago, I had spent quite a bit of time reading about all the resolutions and goals that people set for themselves around this time of year. Many of the articles spoke of ways to successfully stick to your new goals and the one I found the most valuable talks about how everyone should stop setting and believing in goals and begin to believe in a process or routine. Everyone has their own routines that they go through in order to get things done both in the workplace and at home.
For me, I have been doing my best to learn the routine of a professional basketball player playing overseas. This has been quite the learning process and is still not entirely complete, but I have been at this for about three months and I am really starting to get the results I like both on and off the court. Also there are different routines depending on when and where our games are to be played. Since I already gave you the rundown about life on the road now here is life at home.
I usually try and wake up around 9:30 a.m. but after several arguments with the snooze button, my feet usually hit the cold tile around 10 a.m. I grab my speakers and head right into my own personal yoga studio. Itâs small, warm, and cozy and even has a shower and toilet in it. OK, so it is actually my bathroom, but for 40 minutes each morning it is a little place of zen.
I began doing a morning yoga practice about three weeks ago and it has helped with several nagging injuries like tendonitis and plantar fasciitis. My body is now my business and I need to treat it as such. I then walk straight from the studio into my top of the line kitchen (hot plate, microwave and toaster over) and get my first meal of the day in. I usually have yogurt with assorted nuts and silan (date honey), blood orange and an avocado. While preparing, eating and cleaning up my breakfast I muster up my inner nerd/adult and listen to something from my NPR app.
Depending on what time is practice is I usually have a few hours before I need to head to the gym. This is where my process/routine varies a little. If I do not have any errands to run, I require myself to do something positive or useful that my future self will appreciate. Reading, writing, watching or working on something of value. Some of my favorites include reading business insider, watching Ted Talks/documentaries or working on one of my side hustle products such as this blog. With so much unstructured time available I have found these couple of hours before practice to be my favorite time of the day and essential to keep me from being bored, after all you can only watch so many HBO series.
I usually make a smaller meal before heading up to work. I try and get to the gym an hour or so before to get myself taped and ready for practice as well as get extra ballhandling and shots up. I have not had a ton of opportunities to play in games since arriving so practice is where I get to play and tune my skills. After practice it's more shooting games with Ronald Dupree and my newest teammate and former IU Hoosier Bracey Wright. I really enjoy spending time with the guys before and after practice because I can learn so much from the veterans. Also our team chemistry is great and we have quite a few characters on our team that make for a great locker room environment.
After practice itâs always decision time. Do I want to go home and cook again, pick up something or join a teammate or two out for dinner. Usually I love to cook so I eat a majority of my meals at home, but I do try to eat out with someone at least once a week. I feel like its a great way to get away from the isolation of my apartment and enjoy living in one of the oldest cities in the world. After dinner I head home and once again try to do something my future self will appreciate.
By the time I am done with all of my self improvement and side hustle work it is usually 1 or 2 in the morning. This is usually the perfect time to call/text/Skype with my family and friends who are getting getting home from work. The eight-hour time difference has not been that big of a deal since I have vampire-like tendencies (pale skin, allergic to sunlight, soulless, partial insomniac) I have been able to still stay in touch with people back in the states. By about 3 or so I am finally ready to fall asleep and do it all over again the next day.
This is a pretty typical routine for most professional basketball players playing overseas. I try my best not to binge on TV series and movies but there are days that I give my brain a break and cruise through a few mindless hours of a great movie or TV show. Most recently finished a series called House of Lies and have now moved onto The Sopranos. On nights I do decide to leave the house I usually meet up with a friend or a teammate for a beer about two or three nights a week as well. I found this to be one of the best ways to unwind and enjoy my life abroad.
This is what my life is like at 23 and I can honestly say I love my job. I have a smile every time I wake knowing full well that I get paid to head to a gym and perfect a craft that I love. I also love all the freedom and down time I get from this job. I realize how fortunate I am to be able to decide each day what I want to do with 12-15 hours that I have nothing planned and I am doing my darndest to make the best of those hours and not let them just pass by aimlessly. This is my process, this my routine, this is what a day in my life is like as a professional basketball player.
(Note:You can find the archive of Mike Bruesewitz's Imported Bru stories and photo galleries here and listen to his latest podcast here.)
