I originally wrote this for my baseball blog but I imagine there are people who read this but don't read that so I thought I would post this particular tid bit to both. Enjoy
This is the first installment of a 9 part series of things I've learned over the years about life whiling playing, coaching, watching or umpiring baseball.
Principle 1: Losers Make Excuses, Winners Learn From Mistakes
I'll never forget the time I was umpiring at third base in a league
championship game. A young man, who was a phenomenal talent but also
had an erratic attitude had just struck swinging way in front of change
up that absolutely fooled him. He was mad because he felt my partner at
the plate had cost him the at bat with a strike call that he felt was
inside. His coaches words were priceless. The coach looked at him and
matter of factly said, "Yeah, I know the ump made you swing at the one
that was above your head too? I imagine he made you miss that change up
too?" The coach never even got into the foul tip that should have been
crushed. So many times batters blame the umpire for a bad at bat
instead of looking at their own performance. Yes, umpires miss calls.
And to be honest, when I asked my partner about it between innings he
told me it may have been inside, but the coach was right, there was
three other chances that young man had to get a hit and he didn't. It's
all about whether you take responsibility for yourself or not. It's the
same way in life, how many people make choices that are far from wise
and just blame it on someone else. They blame it on their dad, or mom,
the teacher "that didn't like them" or the fact that they grew up poor.
It's silly really. In every at bat there is at least one pitch you can
hit and in life there is always a choice between what is wise and what
isn't. Yes, bad things happen to people. Really bad things, but it's
what we do with the opportunities that are afforded us that matters.
We'll all make bad choices, we'll strike out sooner or later but what
are we going to do with the next at bat, or the next hitter we face?
That's where our focus should be.
The fundamental problem with putting the blame on things that happen to
us is it takes the opportunity to change and adapt away from us. If we
blame someone else for our own lot in life, because it was something was done to us,
there's nothing we can do to change it. No doubt, things happen, you
get beaned when batting, umpires blow a call, but only you control what
you do. One of things I constantly tell my athletes when I'm coaching
is, "We don't control the weather, the size or condition of the field
we're playing on, the other team or the officials. What we do control is us. This truth is fundamental to all of life.
In a society that is constantly bombarding us with the lie that our
self view has to come from a "everybody gets on base, everybody gets a
trophy because we're all winners" point of view where failing is
paramount to certain disaster, it is imperative to admit that we all
strike out at some point. We all give up a home run sooner or later.
The difference in winners and losers is what one does at that moment.
In baseball like life, there are those who win and those who lose.
Often the difference in the long run, is perspective.
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