The sun is shining.
You hear the snap of leather as the pitcher fires the first pitch into my mitt.
The first inning goes by 1-2-3.
Heading into the dugout with high fives and fist bumps the Fish get ready for our first at-bats.
“Next up, Trevor Gutting” – The announcer’s voice says over the loudspeaker.
“Let’s go Mr. Gutting” – kids scream from the stands.
I stroll up to the plate, stirrups pulled up high and the scent of pine tar fills the air.
I step into the box and stair down the pitcher.
First pitch comes…ball 1.
Second pitch…Foul.
Third pitch…crack.
I rollover a weak little dribbler to the third baseman.
Fail!
Fast forward a few innings.
I step back into the box.
Crack!
Line drive right to the centerfielder. Out!
Fail!
Next at-bat, base knock RBI.
As, I go 1 for 3 on the day I think about that .333 average. Which in baseball is great. But if you look at it I failed more than I succeeded.
So why are you still reading this?
Who cares about my baseball failures?
Well…
It is a lesson you can learn from the situation.
How to deal with failure.
Failure happens. Failure is an opportunity to learn and grow.
Over 25+ years of playing baseball I have learned to deal with failure. When I was a kid I probably would have thrown a fit or got pissed off if I struck out or had a bad game.
Now, I may be upset but I know in the game of baseball I will get another chance.
Learning to deal with failure has helped me on my fitness journey too.
It will help you as well if you use it.
Maybe you fail to get all your reps on a set of squats. Do you just throw in the towel and never squat again?
Maybe you have a bad meal and feel like you messed up your progress. Do you stop eating healthy and go back to your old ways?
You failed. So what. Get back after it in the next workout. Get back on track your next meal.
Start to shift your mind and look at failure as a way to progress.
Failing will help you learn what didn’t work and what you need to do to change.
The problem is that once you fail, you just give up. You don’t look back at what went wrong and fix it.
How do you deal with failure? Do you run from it or seek it out and learn from it?
Let me know in the comments.