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.
Tom House's claim to fame wasn't that he was a great pitcher, but that he was a brilliant pitching coach. In fact, he was so good that he coached the most famous pitcher of all time, Nolan Ryan.
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.
He said, "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.
Now even though that may seem like a pretty nasty reality, there's a big secret to this that really left me with a fantastic lesson. I hope it leaves you with a great lesson as well.
The secret is this...you get to choose how your day is going to go when you make the decision to rise to the challenge or to fall to pieces. That is completely up to you.
The choice is completely yours and lives entirely within the intention you set for that day. You must be willing to do the work, especially the hard work, and move forward in your life especially when you aren't feeling like you can play the game well that day.
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 of the time you will spend hours and hours working your butt off and no one will ever see you put the time and effort in.
But that's the nature of the beast.
You are the one who knows how much effort you are giving.
If you understand that everything in your life truly comes down to who you are on the inside and what you are willing to give to see your dreams through, you can accomplish anything. You can become something great and do great things if you are willing to make the sacrifices.
I think that making it to the end of the road in life and knowing that you gave it your all would lead to a lot of very big smiles in your final moments.
That's the only way to do it. Go big.
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.
Tom House's claim to fame wasn't that he was a great pitcher, but that he was a brilliant pitching coach. In fact, he was so good that he coached the most famous pitcher of all time, Nolan Ryan.
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.
He said, "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.
Now even though that may seem like a pretty nasty reality, there's a big secret to this that really left me with a fantastic lesson. I hope it leaves you with a great lesson as well.
The secret is this...you get to choose how your day is going to go when you make the decision to rise to the challenge or to fall to pieces. That is completely up to you.
The choice is completely yours and lives entirely within the intention you set for that day. You must be willing to do the work, especially the hard work, and move forward in your life especially when you aren't feeling like you can play the game well that day.
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 of the time you will spend hours and hours working your butt off and no one will ever see you put the time and effort in.
But that's the nature of the beast.
You are the one who knows how much effort you are giving.
If you understand that everything in your life truly comes down to who you are on the inside and what you are willing to give to see your dreams through, you can accomplish anything. You can become something great and do great things if you are willing to make the sacrifices.
I think that making it to the end of the road in life and knowing that you gave it your all would lead to a lot of very big smiles in your final moments.
That's the only way to do it. Go big.
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 the meaning of integrity by clicking here or read more quotes about changing for life.