Championship D.N.A
B.U.D.S | Newsletter 07 | Reaching The Pinnacle
June is a special time in sports — it’s a time of year champions are crowned. Earlier this month, I took a moment on Thursday, June 13th to personally mark the 5th anniversary of the Toronto Raptors winning their first NBA championship.
Back in 2019, I was a sports junkie. Like many men in their 20s, my life heavily revolved around the teams I arbitrarily supported. So when the Raptors lifted the Larry OB for the first time in franchise history, it was a special moment.
Sports have a way of enriching the human experience. The heartbreaking losses and unforgettable wins give infinite lessons in triumph and failure. The camaraderie from not just playing, but supporting a team fulfills our tribal inclinations to belong to a group or cause bigger than ourselves.
The Spirit of ‘19 catapulted an entire nation into a collective rapture of joy and celebration. Fast forward five years. The team is in NBA purgatory. The bandwagon has been emptied and the true fans are hopeless.
As for myself? My appetite for trophies has been satiated and the days of my obsessive sports fandom are behind me.
Yet, I still find myself thinking often about that beautiful championship run and asking the question:
What does it mean to reach the top of the mountain?
Beyond mountains, there are mountains.
— Haitian Proverb
If you’re lucky enough to witness your favourite club transform from chumps to champs, you quickly realize that championships come and go, real fast. We’re not just talking about sports now, this is a universal truth in all aspects of life.
Career. Fitness. Academics. Material Wealth. Developing a new habit. We’ve all done this exercise. You set an impossible target. Do the work. Reach the goal and celebrate momentarily. Then, it dawns on you, there is a new mountain to climb.
On your way up, make sure to enjoy the view and don’t forget once you reach the top, the inevitable next step is down. Time to begin again.
Does this mean we are destined for a Sisyphean destiny of endless hardship and work? Not quite.
Embracing The Climb
Luckily, each one of us shares a vital, common ancestral trait. The natural aptitude to overcome hardship and the innate strength to endure immense struggle.
Humans are resilient. You are resilient. You’re built to climb uphill.
Once you understand this fact, you can start the process of shedding the unnecessary baggage weighing you down and begin to embrace the path forward.
You know what is required of you. Hard work. Discipline. Consistency. Sacrifice. The hallmark ingredients of ambition. All of these are key elements to help get started. However, to persist and succeed in reaching your final destination, you must also discover two essential components along the way: passion and enthusiasm.
Now, I’m not referring to the trite advice you received from your guidance counsellor when they said follow your passion when picking your career. No. Passion and enthusiasm are intrinsic factors. They are a product of your ambition, a force multiplier of your effort and dedication.
The good news? Passion and enthusiasm can be cultivated and developed, especially as you overcome adversity. When facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles, take a lesson from Seneca when he once said:
“No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself.”
In my experience building this platform and advocating for deprescribing, I’ve faced many moments of self-doubt, uncertainty and isolation. Attempting to disrupt and innovate in an industry which is built on dispensing medicines to the masses can feel like an extremely difficult, uphill battle.
Fortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to witness and be a part of the sublime. I’ve realized the universal truth, that we all possess a strand of that Championship D.N.A. Regardless of where you find yourself through your peaks and valleys, always remember: you can show up, do the work and do it with love.
And when you realize this, you’ll look around and see over the horizon, a view of ever-expanding possibilities and opportunities, waiting for you to conquer them, one step at a time.
Good luck. You got this.
Thanks for reading.
Much love. SG
You have to show more passion than ambition. Yes, we all want to be ambitious, but passion will lead you to incredible places.
Compliment with a story on how to fail forward, an attitude which will undoubtedly give you peace of mind and remind you to always maintain a beginner’s mind.
Build. Understand. Discipline. Stillness. “B.U.D.S” is written by me, Dr. Shawn Gill - I’m a pharmacist and Father of two boys. During the day, I work as a deprescribing pharmacist, helping patients get off drugs, safely and effectively. At night, I write this newsletter. B.U.D.S is a community that's focused on inspiring individuals to take account of their health and wellness, as well as reverse mental health and chronic disease. If you’d like to support this mission, please subscribe below. Much love. SG
If you’d like to learn more about deprescribing, you can visit my website here.
