In my final season of high school baseball, I spent a few months down at USC to work with a 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.
"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.
You get to decide how your day is going to go. You can either rise to the challenge or let your day slowly dwindle down into the depths.
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.
Those decisions are made when no one is watching and are truly a full representation of your integrity and who you are as a person. Even though those small decisions don't have an audience, they are the ones that will make or break you.
Most days no one will ever see you put the time and effort in to become a champion.
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 you put into something and what it really takes to get to where you want to go. If you know that, and you are willing to dedicate the time and make sacrifices, you can do anything with those 80% days and take advantage of what this life has to offer.
Because when all of this is said and done, you'll either look back on your life knowing you gave it your best and there was nothing left on the table for you to do or you will live in regret.
And I'll be damned if I let the latter option happen in my life.
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.
"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.
You get to decide how your day is going to go. You can either rise to the challenge or let your day slowly dwindle down into the depths.
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.
Those decisions are made when no one is watching and are truly a full representation of your integrity and who you are as a person. Even though those small decisions don't have an audience, they are the ones that will make or break you.
Most days no one will ever see you put the time and effort in to become a champion.
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 you put into something and what it really takes to get to where you want to go. If you know that, and you are willing to dedicate the time and make sacrifices, you can do anything with those 80% days and take advantage of what this life has to offer.
Because when all of this is said and done, you'll either look back on your life knowing you gave it your best and there was nothing left on the table for you to do or you will live in regret.
And I'll be damned if I let the latter option happen in my life.
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 this article called The Meaning Of Integrity or these quotes on Changing For Life to get some motivation to move forward!
No comments:
Post a Comment