It’s great to have goals, but without a plan of action, you won’t go very far. You must identify the key elements to help you along the way and this leads us to today's lesson: Education is Never Optional.

Ah yes, education. Your education is something that will always unlock opportunities for you to use in your plan of action. With an excellent education, you’ll be equipped with knowledge, power, and options for you to choose from as you think about the steps needed to achieve your goals. 

In this video, Spencer lets us know that education is never optional. For Spencer, because his mom was a professor at USC, he grew up in a household where academics were valued. Because Spencer took his education seriously and excelled academically and athletically, he had the opportunity to decide between several colleges, including Harvard! 

Ultimately, he decided to go to Colorado on a full athletic scholarship to continue his hoops career & education because his goal was to reach the NBA. Still, his focus on academics gave him options to choose from many colleges.

One of the major keys to success when building any plan is having options. The more options that you have available, means more paths to choose from when building your plan. Having options will also allow you to create a backup plan in case something doesn’t work out as you thought it would. 

Having a goal of reaching the NBA is great, but what if you get injured? Or get cut? Then what? 

Basketball will only take you so far, so it’s important to always have a backup plan no matter what your original plan is.

You can’t play forever, so it’s important to always think about what’s next and what it will take to get there. 

Maybe you want to be a doctor, lawyer, or get into real estate - no matter the goal, education is a major key to opening up these doors. 

So remember - hit the gym but don’t forget to hit the books too!