Yin & Yang Explained

The concept of Yin Yang in Chinese philosophy is the principle that life operates in a way where two opposing but complementary forces exist. You can think of it like two sides of the same coin where every achievement or desire comes at a cost of personal sacrifice and great effort.

Yin represents challenges, introspection and the darker moments in your life where your spirit gains depth and your perspective sharpens. Yang embodies light, breakthroughs, triumphs and peaks in your journey and is the energy that drives us towards our goals. Both light and dark moments are essential by offering us different perspectives and energies that deepen our understanding. This leads to a more balanced journey where the victories feel that much sweeter due to the level of action taken and the sacrifices made along the way.

What drove me during dark periods when I was on the Yin side of the coin, was being conscious of the fact that it was a transient experience that was only happening for a limited amount of time in the greater scheme of my life. Even if it took years, I knew it was only a matter of time before I made it to the other side of the coin to Yang where bliss, fulfilment, and gratitude existed if I just continued to believe in my plan of action and that my goal was possible for me. The image of who I wanted to be and what I wanted to accomplish was steady in my mind and I knew I had to take structured steps and put in a lot of focused effort to fulfill my goals. This process usually starts with being on the Yin side of the coin where you’re challenged, have self-doubt and are afraid of failure, or even of success and having to step out into the unknown.

The key to flipping the coin from Yin to Yang is by focusing on the good things currently in your life and having a clear vision for how you want to live. From there, you can break down your goal into a realistic approach that can be sustained for a certain period of time until you get there. It comes down to your thought patterns and taking control of your mindset which is the engine and starting point to achieve any goal because without action, there are no results.

I had graduated from an IVY league university and was looking to play basketball professionally overseas which was viewed as a long shot. Largely because I didn’t have a celebrated college resume from a top tier division 1 program, or the necessary stats to back up my grand desire of wanting to play pro. The dream rested solely on my shoulders and unlike many players coming out of major D1 colleges with connections for tryouts and opportunities to go pro, I had none, but I still believed it was possible for me even though I had no way of making it happen yet.

I watched plenty of players I knew and worked out with sign contracts with various teams overseas while I was stuck at home with no offers. So, I decided to create a workout routine for the weightroom and on the court that I’d follow, and reach out to other pro basketball players in my circle to connect me with agents looking for new clients. When I got very little interest in return, I began to entertain the thought that maybe it wasn’t meant to be and that’s why nobody was giving me a chance because on paper my resume wasn’t convincing.

I had to pay to attend multiple professional tryouts and exposure camps, some of them internationally, which were mostly a waste of time and money until eventually, I had an explosive performance at one of the pro camps in Las Vegas. I won the MVP which kicked off my career because there was a coach from the Middle East in attendance watching me play and later recruited me to Lebanon for my first pro season.

Throughout the period when I had lost belief, I still had an inner feeling that there was another side to the coin I was on where my professional basketball dreams could still be realized despite how hopeless my situation looked. No-one believed in my goal, from my coaches to my African parents who were confused as to why I was pursuing a path barely 1% of people make it in when I had an Ivy league degree to use to my advantage. Perfectly understood, but I had to zone out the advice from people around me who felt what I was aiming for was too high or that I should accept the reality that maybe my heyday was behind me.

In my eyes, I felt like I was only getting better with a higher ceiling to reach and so I decided to maintain a consistent workout schedule that allowed me to lay down the pavement in my mind that this was a path I was going down and it was going to work. Regardless of how I felt emotionally, I showed up everyday and followed my program to stay ready just in case an opportunity came, which is exactly what happened. Showing up for myself and blocking out the contrary advice from the outside world by diving into my vision and doing the necessary monotonous and sometimes ugly work, was the recipe for success. These were the challenges I needed to excite the energy within me that my life was in my control and there were no set rules on how I should live it. It was on me to figure it out if I wanted to be truly happy because the worst thing was to live a life for the sake of someone else’s happiness. That’s a waste of the inner genius we all carry to seek out our own truth and fulfilment in the world.

Coming out of college and not playing for a year was tough but in the process of reaching my goal, I underwent a different level of growth and maturation I knew would propel me indefinitely if I ever faced such heavy doubt and delay again in my life. It was enlightening to know I didn’t give up on myself despite how things looked and that having patience and a strong sense of delayed gratification is what’s required to make it to the other side of the coin. I kept fine tuning my schedule to suit my goal which at the time was to train frequently enough without overtraining, focus on my nutrition, and get more sleep by forcing myself to bed half an hour earlier.

There were mini cycles of me being on the Yin side of the coin and trying to get to the Yang side of the coin in many different areas of my life from my job, to my personal desires and relationships. And each time, I had to be conscious of accepting my current reality and thought patterns for what it was and do my best to adjust my thinking and course of action to change it. I understood the results weren’t coming overnight but would inevitably come if I just kept at it and continued to believe I was deserving of my goal regardless of the many rejections along the way. I was to simply learn from it, adjust my strategy, and keep my end goal in mind while positioning myself for potential breakthroughs.