For both Japanese and Dominican baseball players, baseball has been sought after as a means to become famous, wealthy, and to put food on the table for themselves and their families.
In order to realize this dream, players from these countries are willing to lie about their age, take performance enhancing drugs, and or wake up at 5 a.m and practice until their hands bleed.
Now I’m not condoning that you lie and cheat and put your health at risk to realize your dreams, in fact I have my own philosophy about steroids. See, I had plenty of team-mates that were on steroids while in college(especially J.R college) and knowing that I could be losing playing time from someone using performance enhancing drugs was a VERY frustrating experience. But here was what I kept telling my self.
“If I have to lie and put my health at risk in order to do what I love…then it’s not meant to be”.
Most of us will experience certain issues like this that will challenge our level of integrity.
The question is………
- How BAD do you want to be GOOD?
- What are you willing to sacrifice to become the player you dream of being?
- How inspired are you to live the life styles of the players you aspire to be like?
- How determined are you going to be in the face of adversity?
Remember, there is always someone working harder than you……with a sweeter swing and better physical gifts.
Learn to take each pitch on pitch at a time………practice your heart out, and when it comes time to execute, let what may be……be.
Trust your instincts and never forget why you play this game.
If you can do that then no one will ever be able to take your POWER away from you regardless of how hard they work, or what short-cuts they take.
It’s in your hands!