As quickly as you can go 4-1, you can go 1-4. And the whole objective is not to get too high and not to get too low. It's one thing to tell somebody that and explain it, but it's another thing to really buy in, to have felt that and understand what it means to stay even-keel. That's what you have to be in this league.
Interpretation
Maintain balance and composure regardless of success or failure.
Sue Bird emphasizes the importance of emotional stability in competitive environments, highlighting that extremes in feelings—whether from winning or losing—can disrupt focus and performance. To truly thrive, one must internalize the concept of staying even-keeled and recognize that both triumphs and setbacks are part of the journey.
In practice
Sharing this quote during a sports team's motivational talk after a win or loss.
A lot of us players, if you were to ask them, feel like they have to play overseas. Why? 'Why not? Might as well do it while I can.' For a while, I felt that way - I've got to make the most money that I can. Now, do I feel like I could still play overseas? Absolutely. But I don't feel that pressure anymore.
All of the teams in this league that have won multiple championships, they didn't come out the gate winning. Sometimes you have to take those hits to understand what it takes to win.
Homophobia hurts our league. Racism hurts it. Sexism hurts it.
She regarded books as the emblems of secret brotherhood. A man with this sort of library couldn't possibly hurt her.
In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift. If we conceal our wounds out of fear and shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others.
Every luminary in the constellation of human greatness, like the stars, comes out in the darkness to shine with the reflected light of God.
Because ideas have to be original only with regard to their adaptation to the problem at hand, I am always extremely interested in how others have used used them.
My best mentor is a mechanic - and he never left the sixth grade. By any competency measure, he doesn't have it. But the perspective he brings to me and my life is, bar none, the most helpful.
The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.
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