Playing sports today is much different from when I played. I was driven to be the best that I could, driven to be successful and driven to prove people wrong who doubted me. Last night I had a great conversation with a parent of one of my baseball kids. Today a lot of kids are driven not to fail, in baseball where the failure rate is 70% that is a hard uphill battle. If you are trying not to fail in a game built on failure its going to be a long and troublesome path. I will use baseball again as the example, if you go 3-10 you’re an all-star and if you continue that average for your entire career you’re most likely a hall-of-famer. Think about that for a second, how many others careers can you fail 70% of the time and it not only be acceptable but you’re then looked at as being really good.
I send a quote or thinking point to my oldest son everyday, this is something I sent him the other day…. “Never be afraid to make a mistake, it means you’re trying. When you are trying you’re learning and when you’re learning you’re growing. If you’re growing you’re going to find success. At the end of the day if you find success from making a mistake then you’ve had a great day.”
I have found some of my greatest success from failing. I learned how to overcome obstacles and for the point of this blog I overcame my fear of failing. To this day there is one memory in my sports career that I look back on and wish I could have again. It happened when I was in 6th grade playing Little League Baseball. I had a very successful year as a 12 year old, I lead my team as well as the league in hitting that year, but do to the fact that my dad and another coach had a disagreement I was not chosen as an all star. How did I react, I let my emotions take over and didn’t play my 7th grade year.. Why? Because I thought I will show them, I just won’t play. What did that get me? Nothing…I missed an entire year of a game I loved because I let my emotions and Fear take over.
Don’t let Fear take you away from something you enjoy and want to try. Embrace failing, if you give your best and fail embrace it, learn from it and grow. If you learn and grow from your failure then success will come.
There are some great quotes about Fear… Fear causes Hesitation and Hesitation causes your worst Fears to come true… Fear of failure must never be a reason not to try something.
Enjoy your day.
TCB