Batter up!

Anyone who knows me, knows I love Baseball.  The game is filled with stories, back stories and so many analogies and metaphors that volumes of books fill the libraries.  Since we are just ending the first half of the season, I thought I would highlight a few of my favorite baseball truisms as they have to do with life.  Like life, the key to success is focus.  Without further adieu, here is my:

TOP 10 List of LIFE LESSONS from BASEBALL

10. A challenge is a challenge

In baseball as in life, we learn to face them, sometimes with trepidation and sometimes with a lust for the unknown, adventure and the promise of the spoils of victory.  Like video games, the mountains seem to get taller as time goes on.  But we accept the challenges of life when the bell rings, when we are called to bat.  Your time will come.  Learn to cherish the opportunity.

9. Keep your eye on the ball: Focus

Focus, focus, focus.  It’s how you get things done in this world of endless distractions and diversions.  You can have all the skills in the world, have enormous resources to back them up, but the largest organization has met its demise by losing focus on their goals and customers.  Same goes for individuals.  Find your purpose and you are ahead of the game.  Lose your focus and you might be kissing decades of talent goodbye.  Never take your eye off the ball.  Ever.

8. Get on first base

It’s not easy to hit a home run every time you come to the plate.  In fact it’s dog gone near impossible.  And if you model your approach to life or business this way, you are going to strike out a lot.  Sluggers tend to swing and miss.  A lot.  Hitters and more importantly, team players know it’s their fundamental job simply to get on base.  If you make it to first base, you have options.  Your manager and team have options.  If you strike out every time, those options evaporate rather quickly.  You don’t always have to swing for the fences.  Innovation rarely happens that way.  Often times it becomes more of a collective and incremental exercise in organizational teamwork.  Even “single shop” entrepreneurs learn early to take things one step at a time.  Rolling the dice on an “all in” investment is simply not good strategy.  Diversify your efforts and have something to show for it.  Get a base hit first.

7. Advance the runner

This goes hand in hand with the previous principle.  In baseball, an incremental objective is to get the runner into scoring position.  It’s much easier to score from second base than it is from first.  Advancing the runner is the equivalent to passing the ball in other sports; the importance of which is you extend the play and increase the odds of your team scoring.  Consider what ideas you are bringing to the discussion  which advance the thinking of your team.  How can the idea, product or service be further refined?  You may not always be the one to score the winning run, however you should attempt in all cases to contribute to winning.

6. Listen to your coaches

Coaches are there for one reason and one reason only:  To help you optimize your performance in order to help you increase your performance.  How do they do this?  More often than not because they have been there, done that and have the proverbial T-shirt to prove it.  In Baseball, they might even HAVE the championship T-shirt.  Do you?  Coaches help players get through a down period and surmount obstacles.  They know where the pitfalls are and if you are honest with them, can help you out of them.  Coaching is a relationship.  They can only help you as much as you want to be helped.  Once you make that decision, it’s best to listen to your coaches.

5. Swing for the fences

Sometimes in Baseball, the count is 3-0 with a man on base and your team is behind.  Your manager gives you the green light.  Why not.  Go for it.  If the pitch is something you like, try to hit it out of the park.  In life, you will know when the time is right.  It’s usually the now or never moment; the job interview; asking someone out on a date; that make or break presentation.  It’s go time.  If you have done your homework, if you feel you are prepared, yes it’s your chance to hit a home run.  If you have no idea what this feels like, just search for “The Bat Flip” on-line and you will understand.

4. The farther you hit the ball, the farther you get to run

This dovetails with the previous point.  See you never know how things will turn out in life.  The key is to keep running.  They say the secret to success in business is momentum.  Keep running.  Many people don’t know and it’s a rarity, but an inside-the-park home run is possible in Baseball.  Keep running.  The farther you hit the ball, the farther you get to run.  This goes for any venture or initiative you have ever had in mind.  Hit, and run.  Don’t hesitate.  Don’t look back.  You might just go, all, the, way.

3. Watch out for curve balls

Life has a tendency to come at you from unexpected directions.  Sometimes opportunities will come from far afield and may be unrecognized as such.  Sometimes a pitch will seem right where you want it to be, but at the last minute will veer out of the strike zone just as you swing and miss.  Life throws curve balls at you from time to time.  This is where perseverance must come into play.  Great hitters become great over time because they learn to recognize pitches as they are thrown at them.  They can identify the “Spin” of a ball literally as it leaves the pitcher’s hand.  They call this picking up the pitch.  This takes practice and a willingness to pay attention to details.  Ultimately it takes patience and hard fought experience.  By developing a consistent approach to what is thrown at you in life and having the patience to do so, you will increase your chances of success AND peace of mind.

2. Take a pitch every once in a while

Be it a curve ball or a fast ball, every pitch that comes your way is not necessarily designed for you to hit.  Some are simply meant for you to chase while others are meant to “brush you off the plate” and keep you off balance.  You have to know when to take a pitch.  Taking a Pitch in baseball simply means recognizing a situation for what it is and quickly deciding that you would rather not be involved.  When I used to meet with my Business Development counterparts back in the early days of the dot.com boom we would compare notes as to how may “pitches” by companies we would take seriously.  This usually amounted to no more than one in ten.  Your resources are limited, your resolve should not be.  When you learn to take a pitch you may be saving both yourself and your organization valuable time and resources.  You also signal your seriousness to your industry.  Over time, you will even find less curve balls coming your way.  You have become a “Player”.

1. Respect the game

Baseball is among the most disciplined of sports in the world.  There is a certain decorum and sense of etiquette expected of each player both on and off the field.  These comprise the unwritten rules of the game.  Stretch these and you will hear it from your teammates.  Violate these and you just might be the “Unintentional” target of a pitch.  There is a time to be hard charging and Baseball IS known as Hardball, but you will garner much more professional respect if you learn to recognize when to back off and let your opponent or colleague save face.  The stage is big and the lights are bright.  People have long memories both fortunately and unfortunately.  They will remember if you helped them look their best when the lights were on.  Learn the rules first so you can not only show respect but also command it over time as well.  The dividends will be many.

Baseball is a lot like life.  You have to know the rules of the game and carefully manage expectations.  You have to learn how to pick your battles and when to simply “Protect the plate”.  Everyone wants to be a winner.  Everyone wants to hit a Home Run.  Sometimes however you will hear in baseball that a person had a “Good at bat”, even though he or she did not produce a hit.  They say this because the person exhibited good judgment and discipline.  They also probably frustrated the pitcher at the same time!  Raw talent is one thing, properly preparing to use that talent effectively and in the right situation is what separates the average player from the great one.  So keep practicing and most importantly keep playing at this Game we call Life.  We just might be reading about YOU in the history books someday.