A relief pitcher's mentality parallels that of life in many distinct ways. They have to be prepared to enter a game at any point and feel that they can control the chaos ensuing. They sometimes have a nice comfortable lead, and feel that they can cruise through the situation. They have to have focus and intensity for the task at hand, and be prepared for a tough fight. They sometimes go out there with a nice lead and things start to slip away from them, causing them to lose the game. When they look at themselves in the mirror after that game they may say to themselves, "You suck! You no longer have it! It's time for you to just pack it up!" But then after a good night's sleep, they have to have regained the confidence in themselves, and believe that they are the greatest again, all the while forgetting about the devastating loss that happened the day before. They have to block that moment out, and decide that today is a new day on the mound.
Which brings me to life.We often get placed in some hairy game time situations, and have to face tough batters who are willing to do what they have to in order to win the game for their side. There will be all of these situations where life asks us to step onto the mound and get the side out to win the game. We may come in with some incredible "Rocky-ish" theme music, and our confidence is filled to the brim. When we take the ball on the hill, we are pretty sure that things will in the end be in our favor, and that when we get back to the locker room, someone will ask just what it took for us to get as tough as nails. But then the unthinkable happens:
Things begin to unravel, and we become unnerved as the batters begin to get the best of us. We slip into some old ways, get setbacks in our goals, someone gets the better of our judgment, or we just get plain old knocked around trying to do the right thing and win the game for team "I". After such a defeat the walk back to the dugout drawing board is just the longest one in the world. We are dejected, angry at ourselves, and overall disappointed with our performance, and we now look at ourselves in the mirror saying, "You absolutely suck." It is low points like these where a metaphoric shower of the mind, and a review of the game is in order.
Life does that often where you think you've got a particular batter figured out, but they get the best of you. And it sometimes is very hard to get your head back into place after such a defeat, but you have to. Stepping up to the mound everyday in life takes courage in itself, and the line drives, bloop hits, home runs, and squibblers that get between fielders is something that will happen always. Couple those with our own errors on the field makes for some possible bad days of trying to pitch for ourselves. The key is to not let it live in our minds and have the mentality of real baseball relief pitchers..You have to shake it off, forget what happened the previous night, and decide how you want to proceed again. But the absolute most important thing that you need to do is regain your confidence, and say to yourself, "I am great..I can do this." Because regaining confidence means the difference between getting defeated again, and mentally firing yourself up for a win, and achieving it.
Whenever the time comes where you get called to the mound in life, forget about previous slip ups, blown games, and unfulfilled performances. Life has to go on and so do you. Every day there will be screw ups, crossed signals, and wins and losses. But no matter what, always take the ball. Even demand it. Because everyday is a new day on the mound...And a chance for you to win.
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