Failure is a part of baseball. The best of the players fail 70% of the time, so its safe to say that being able to handle failure is essential to enjoy playing this game, and playing at the highest levels.

With our competitive mentality we have become obsessed with results, thus the “stat rat”.

We no longer view failure as something positive or necessary for improvement, though we may say, “you can’t win them all”, we refuse to look at failure or struggle as a good thing. As a loyal friend even. So now we have come to a place where very little is learned. Majority of players have been able to take only very little away from their failures that could have had a positive influence on them as individuals. They are conditioned to be result oriented and impatient. “If you strike out or make an error you are you just worthless”.

So then comes a big problem. PLAYERS LEARN TO FEAR FAILURE.  If a player learns to fear failure, they may begin to associate competing in general with fear. The passion for the game is then lost.

So who is to blame for this? In my opinion its over-demanding parents, and coaches who’s expectations do not coincide with what is best for a ball team or individual player.

Regardless of circumstances, your environment, cultural background, inherited genes. These circumstances are no match for a man whose focus is razor-sharp and is willing to continue forward indefinitely to reach his goals. He may fail 100, 1,000, or 100,000 times to get what he desires and believes he deserves.

If you need some sort of proof of your success let it be seen in your preparation. If you can truly tell yourself that you did everything in your power to succeed or win then you are already a success and that whatever happens happened as it should have. We receive what we get with gratitude regardless of what the outcome may be. If we fail we are too focused on searching for a solution to become angry or emotional.

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