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Small victories – one right after another – add up to success over the long run. It’s easy to get distracted, worrying about the future, the enormity of the challenge. But, if you’ll take things one day at a time, biting off manageable chunks, you’ll be surprised. One day you’ll look back and wonder ‘how in the world did I accomplish all that?’
This past week, the World Series between the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies began. And while sadly, my beloved Red Sox didn’t make the cut this year, there’s something still truly magical about watching fall baseball even if your team isn’t in the hunt. It almost feels like the energy in the stadiums becomes electric, a far cry from a mid-season game when the end of the 162-game season feels light years away. People come alive and you might even find yourself pulling for one of the teams!
While watching some of the pregame coverage, a reporter asked several of the players about how they navigate the pressure and stress that comes with being on the biggest stage in baseball in order to win. With all eyes on them, not only from their respective cities but from around the world, these games most definitely feel different for the players and coaches. But the response from the players from both teams was almost unanimous: we focus on the game one pitch at a time, one at bat at a time, one inning at a time. Whether it’s the beginning of the game, whether they’re winning, or whether they’re losing, they focus on what they can control in the moment. It’s similar to the process Nick Saban teaches his student athletes at the University of Alabama to think about the task at hand.
That this philosophy is employed by individuals who are the best at what they do is perhaps a testament to how it can be applied beyond sports and in our own lives. I’m reminded of a friend whose dream it was to write an award-winning screenplay, but at first all she could think about were the accolades, not what she needed to do in order to actually see it completed. Sure enough, she began to feel defeated by the process of writing her script, that she wasn’t cut out for it, that her work wasn’t good enough. For almost a year the script remained incomplete. The reality was, she wasn’t focused on what she could accomplish in the moment, but instead on what she wanted to accomplish in the future. However, one day, she decided to give it a second shot. Little by little, one page became ten, a scene became an act, and then finally, her three acts became a final script. She realized all along that she could in fact write her screenplay, but she needed to focus on each word, phrase, and page before she could even dream about seeing it to completion. After a few rounds of edits, she sent her script off to some contacts and it was eventually purchased by a major studio. She’s now living her dream of being a screenwriter.
You’ll often find in life that when we take a step back, live in the present, and put our best effort forward with what we have right in front of us, over time, we’ll reap the rewards. Yes, we’ll encounter setbacks and have to readjust. But when we give ourselves a goal, and focus on what is required to get there, step by step, with a little hard work and determination, you’ll be more than happy in the end that you took the time to go ‘pitch by pitch,’ ‘inning by inning!’
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