"A good friend of mine used to say, 'This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.' Think about that for a while." Nuke LaLoosh
- Bull Durham 1988
Have you ever signed up for a sports team? Participated in Try-Outs for baseball or football? Did you show up thinking... "hmmm, I'm not going to do my best to make the team, I'm just going to show up and tell them I want to be on the team"?
Well.. life doesn't work that way. We don't just get points for showing up. If there is no effort, or differential between us and the next guy, then we wouldn't be unique. We wouldn't be picked for the winning team.
So say you make the team, you are playing ball. Baseball that is. Is it a simple game? You just swing, make contact with the ball and hit. It goes over the fence every time!!! --- Ya NO! It takes practice, it takes concentration and skill. Life is just like that. Competition in life is just like that. We don't succeed by showing up. We succeed by competing against the opponent. If I swing better, make contact better, and hit the ball the farthest.. I WIN!!!
When you go to tryouts who are you competing against? Similar attributes of yourself? The athletic, competitive, driven boys that either their parents forced them to sign up, or that have been playing catch with their dads in the front yard since birth. As we get older we don't need to tryout.. we just get nominated.
"Hey Al, the company has a team softball league.. can you fill in for George on Thursday night?"
The competition begins... Al is thinking.. "I better perform.. they nominated me". Al is judging himself subconciously, comparing himself ultimately against George. Then to the rest of the team. Is it perception to say he can't fail them? I mean he was hand picked.
Al gets up to the plate.. swing....miss. Next pitch... hesitation, the ump yells out "ball". The third pitch... swing, full contact execution, its a hit... home run! .... The crowd goes wild!!!!
Competition came full circle. Was it luck? Did Al strive to not let the team down? Or did the his inner competition produce a WIN attitude? Either way.. its just baseball.. the game is simple. Right?
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
bobbot
Alpha Whiskey
Gary Gladstone
fingerlakeswanderer
Dennis Knight
Gabby Fox
Salon.com
Comments