When I was in my final season of baseball in high school, I took a few trips down to University Of Southern California to learn from a very famous pitching coach named Tom House.
What made Tom so famous wasn't his own career in the MLB as a pitcher, but the fact that he was Nolan Ryan's (the most famous pitcher of all time) pitching coach.
On a hot sunny day and after about 60-70 pitches in a bullpen, Tom looked at me and said words that I would never forget.
He said, "Evan. 10% of the time you are going to be amazing, 10% of the time you are going to suck worse than imaginable, and 80% of the time you are going to be just average.
Champions are made in that 80%."
Isn't that amazing? Isn't it amazing that about 80% of your days you are going to feel completely average. Nothing special about the day. No incredible feeling in your body. Just the feeling of being average.
That may seem like a pretty bitter realization about life, but there's a final piece to all of this that really makes the lesson worthwhile.
The secret is this...you get to choose how your day is going to go when you make the decision to rise to the challenge or to fall to pieces. That is completely up to you.
You get the choice of either rising to the challenge or sinking back down into the depths. You get to make the decision to do the hard work and grind through it all or give up completely. But that decision is completely up to you and on you to make.
Even though those decisions don't have an audience, they are the foundations to your integrity as a human being. They may seem like small choices, but eventually they add up and make a huge impact on your life.
Most of those hours you spend working your tail off on something will never be seen by anyone.
But that's not the point. The point is this...
You are the one who knows how much effort you are giving.
You know how much time you put into something and how much effort you really devoted to becoming the best person you could be. Further, you know that you decided to take that 80% "meh" day and turn up the heat so you could make it a fantastic day.
To make it to the end of your life knowing that you gave it your all would lead to a lot of big smiles in your final moments. You knew that you really did it and gave your heart the best chance it had to see it's wishes through.
That's really the only way to do it. Go big or go home.
So decide that you are going to make the most of those 80% days and become a champion. Have the best year of your life.
What made Tom so famous wasn't his own career in the MLB as a pitcher, but the fact that he was Nolan Ryan's (the most famous pitcher of all time) pitching coach.
On a hot sunny day and after about 60-70 pitches in a bullpen, Tom looked at me and said words that I would never forget.
He said, "Evan. 10% of the time you are going to be amazing, 10% of the time you are going to suck worse than imaginable, and 80% of the time you are going to be just average.
Champions are made in that 80%."
Isn't that amazing? Isn't it amazing that about 80% of your days you are going to feel completely average. Nothing special about the day. No incredible feeling in your body. Just the feeling of being average.
That may seem like a pretty bitter realization about life, but there's a final piece to all of this that really makes the lesson worthwhile.
The secret is this...you get to choose how your day is going to go when you make the decision to rise to the challenge or to fall to pieces. That is completely up to you.
You get the choice of either rising to the challenge or sinking back down into the depths. You get to make the decision to do the hard work and grind through it all or give up completely. But that decision is completely up to you and on you to make.
Even though those decisions don't have an audience, they are the foundations to your integrity as a human being. They may seem like small choices, but eventually they add up and make a huge impact on your life.
Most of those hours you spend working your tail off on something will never be seen by anyone.
But that's not the point. The point is this...
You are the one who knows how much effort you are giving.
You know how much time you put into something and how much effort you really devoted to becoming the best person you could be. Further, you know that you decided to take that 80% "meh" day and turn up the heat so you could make it a fantastic day.
To make it to the end of your life knowing that you gave it your all would lead to a lot of big smiles in your final moments. You knew that you really did it and gave your heart the best chance it had to see it's wishes through.
That's really the only way to do it. Go big or go home.
So decide that you are going to make the most of those 80% days and become a champion. Have the best year of your life.
About the Author:
Evan Sanders is a professional life coach at AYKME coaching. Dive into these great Integrity Quotes http://thewordsofencouragement.com/integrity-meaning/ or these quotes on changing for life http://thewordsofencouragement.com/change-for-life/ to get some motivation to move forward!
No comments:
Post a Comment