In The Box Archives - Page 8 of 9 - Kevin Wilson Baseball, LLC

Coaching From the Inside Out

You’ve seen him at all the games. He stands over his players like a cloud of rage, doubt and fear all wrapped up into one. He forms a ring of tension that follows him everywhere he goes. His players are trying not to fail because they’re aware of the verbal abuse that will eventually rain down on them.

You’ve all seen him at the games. His name is Coach.

I’ve certainly had coaches like this. I’m sure most of you reading this have had at least one coach like this in your playing career, or maybe you currently have a boss who fits this description.

If I was a betting man, the above-mentioned coach isn’t in touch with his feelings. Chances are he hasn’t taken the time to pour into himself as a human being to find his PURPOSE and WHY in this life.

When tasked with leading a team, reflection can enhance your leadership skills and ultimately help your team. Reflect on WHY you’re coaching in the first place. Think back to how you treat your players. Are you treating them the way you would want to be treated? Or are you treating them the way your old man or your little league coach treated you? Too many coaches are driven by wins and losses. They treat their players like robots, simply moving a joystick to gain results. They do not value the power of relationships.

Building Relationships = Building Leadership

If you’re going to build relationships by influencing, impacting and motivating players in a positive manner, start by focusing on the internal, rather than the external. The old saying is “they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Show your players that you care about what’s on the inside before you care about what’s on the outside. Sometimes as coaches, we tend to focus too much on the results and coach only the externals (wins, losses, hits, strikeouts, etc). The process shows us that to get the desired results that we want, we must first address what that player and person is made of internally.

People love to throw around the word “buy-in.” In my opinion, it’s just another word that’s been watered down. At the core, buy-in simply means trust. It’s one of the most important factors that we live by. For example, when we fly in an airplane, we trust that the pilots and crew know enough about what they are doing to bring us safely from point A to point B. When we go out to eat at a restaurant, we trust that the chef and his kitchen strive to meet our needs by preparing our meals elegantly.

Relationships are built on trust. It’s the number one factor in having a strong and loving relationship. And I’m not just talking about your life partner. Trustful relationships expand to the workplace and beyond.

A coach that values trust is the coach who becomes a strong leader. He understands that in order to lead, he must first gain the trust of his players. There is a lot of work to be done on his part to gain that trust. He just can’t show up and give a speech at the beginning of the year and expect that his players will immediately buy-in.

Gaining trust from another requires a deep dive into their person. What are their fears? What are their doubts? What do they believe in? Where have they come from? What is their home life like? What are their strengths? WHY do they do what they do? In fact, we did an entire interview on KWB Radio about Teaching the Millennial which you can listen to here.

The answers to these questions will help you gain access into the person you are dealing with. At the end of the day, all the person wants to know is if they matter. Do they matter to the coach, the team or the organization? Is their voice really being heard, or are their leaders just listening to reply, rather than listening to understand and implement?

The Head Leads the Heart and the Hands

Whether you’re a leader of a baseball team or Fortune 100 company, exhibiting good judgment and being capable of leading with passion and PURPOSE sets you apart. You’re not afraid to roll up your sleeves and go to work alongside your people every day.

In 17 years of coaching and leading others, I’ve had life-changing experiences which taught me to double-down on these three aspects of leadership:

The Head – When making important decisions – whether to steal, down 2 in the 9th inning or hiring a VP of Business Development, it requires the ability to lead with your gut, especially when you’re faced with uncertainty or incomplete information. Exhibiting sound judgment is foundational for any leader.

The Heart – Leading from your heart creates a genuine connection with your people. Players today demand more from their leader. They expect transparency. They want a coach and leader who stands for more than just Wins and Losses. They want a leader who inspires them with their passion and PURPOSE and shows that they genuinely care about the individual first and the player second.

The Hands – Great coaches don’t rule from the top step of the dugout. They don’t learn through the grapevine about a player’s issues or differentiating points of view. The great leaders lead – literally. They are not afraid to stand alongside their players, take the shovel and start digging when necessary. By doing this, leaders earned the love, trust and respect, of their players.

How you feel about yourself is the most important factor in your success.

Give Yourself Permission To Love

Love is a powerful word. It brings about feelings and emotions that few other words in the English language can. In my opinion, it should not be flung around carelessly.

With that being said, there are so many leaders and coaches who are scared to love – love on their players, love on their coaches, love on their staff.

And most importantly love themselves.

Universally, love carries a romantic connotation. I myself was afraid to love early on in my career. I wouldn’t give myself permission. I couldn’t tell someone other than my girlfriend or parents that I loved them because I was scared to experience how the other person would react. Would they think I was too touchy-feely? Would a teammate think I was trying to make an advance? I was caught in the middle – frozen on an 0-2 fastball down the middle.

Remember that coach I talked about at the beginning? The one who was full of anxiety, fear, doubt, and rage because he was always looking over his shoulder waiting for the other shoe to drop? It’s a classic case of someone whose whole life has been built around the approval of others. He had fear of disapproval and abandonment that drove almost everything he did on the field and was evident for all to see when he unleashed on his players.

If you spend your life seeking approval or rewards from others – whether it’s their love or their acceptance – you will never find the sort of fulfillment that comes from accepting and loving yourself.

Remind your players that you love them. Put your arm around them and go for a walk to find out what they are made of on the inside. If you haven’t already, read the full article on how one walk changed the course of a Major League Baseball player’s season here. Show them you lead with your gut. Lead your team with PURPOSE and show that you genuinely care about each individual. Stand alongside your players, and start pulling the rope with them.

You’ll earn the love, trust and respect, from your players.

Show me a coach who cares about people and I will show you a coach who is successful beyond any box score.

Love,

For more than a decade, Kevin Wilson has been one of the most respected hitting coaches in the game. He works behind the scenes as a private hitting consultant to some of the best hitters in Major League Baseball. In 2013, Kevin was the hitting coach for the USA Baseball 18U National Team. Team USA beat Japan for the Gold medal at the IBAF World Cup in Taichung, Taiwan.

He is the author of the Amazon #1 Best Seller The #GoodBatting Book and co-hosts a popular podcast, KWB Radio, that showcases unique conversations with the pros. If you want Kevin to speak at your next event or if you want take advantage of his popular 2-day KWB Experience for players and coaches, contact Kevin today!

Follow Kevin on twitter @KWBaseball and visit his website KWBaseball.com

Purpose Provides Consistency

Recently, my good friend Joe Ferraro brought something to my attention on KWB Radio that, quite frankly, I didn’t remember happening. In Episode 40, he shared with our audience a recent text message exchange he and I had:

JF – What are you three favorite movies?

Now full disclosure, Joey Jett (as I like to call him) absolutely loves this question. He goes as far as to say that if you’re looking for a life partner to spend the rest of eternity with, this is the single most important question you can pose to figure out if he or she is worthy of a lifelong relationship. So with that being said, he’s asked this question to almost every human being he has ever met, but in all of those conversations, this was the one response that stopped him dead in his tracks.

KW – What is the purpose of watching these movies? It depends on WHY you’re asking me, what movies I give you.

Now you may be wondering WHY I asked a question in response rather than give him a direct answer. Those who have worked with me or followed me for years, understand that I’m meticulous in the way I communicate. I have a PURPOSE for WHY I do everything in life, and when it comes to conversation, I submerse myself in order to fully understand where the other person is coming from. In the example above, I could have given JJ a direct answer and satisfied his reasons behind asking it.

But that’s not the way I approach communication.

I know he was asking me the question for a reason, so I wanted to make sure I answered it to the best of my ability. The only way I was going to do that was by asking a question in return to understand the purpose behind his question.

Purpose Provides Consistency

When you approach things with PURPOSE, you begin to work smarter, not harder. And when you start working smarter, you begin to see consistent results in your life.

When you look at successful people, you’ll hear others talk about the talents that successful people display. They assume having talent automatically leads to success. Talent may help you gain short-term success, but in reality, consistency leads to success for years to come.

I share with hitters that when given endless opportunities, anyone can hit the ball hard, one time. Anyone can get a hit, one time. Any last place team can beat a first-place team, one time. The list goes on and on.

Purpose Szczur

The best are the best for a reason. They have figured out how to be the best for a long period of time by understanding and executing the small things which in turn, provide the consistency in their lives, both on and off the field.

Talent gets you drafted. Consistency allows you to make a living.

Think about the big names in the game. Do you know Mike Trout because he had one good month in his career? Do you know Derek Jeter because he had one good week at the plate? How about the guys in the Hall of Fame? Did they have one good year and then ride the proverbial roller coaster the rest of their career?

What do they all have in common? They were consistent day in and day out. I’m not talking about consistency in the stat book. I’m talking about the consistency in their routines. Consistency in their purpose for everything they did. They became obsessed with having purpose, even down to how they put the ball on their Tanner Tees.

Details Matter in the Game of Baseball and Life.

If someone were to come to your place of work and ask you WHY you do what you do, and what your PURPOSE is for executing your WHY, would you be able to provide them a direct and meaningful answer? How about if someone comes up to you during your pre-game routine and asks what you’re working on and WHY, would you be capable of explaining the details and PURPOSE of your cage work in a clear and concise manner?

Details sometimes get glossed over in our race to the top. We think it’s a straight shot from A to B and that if we just start to push the vehicle downhill, the momentum will take you the rest of the way.

Life is a puzzle. Every puzzle has pieces. And every piece is different and has a PURPOSE for fitting into another. Figuring out the puzzle of life requires vision, planning, and precise execution. Having PURPOSE allows you to understand WHY you do everything that you do.

The road to success is littered with clues. Along your journey, if you understand WHY you are doing something and have PURPOSE for everything you do, chances are that you are going to find consistency in your life.

So remember the conversation I had with Joey Jett? Ask the question. Listen to their response, and if they pass the test with PURPOSE and focus, you may have found the leading candidate for your soulmate…or at least your next movie date.

Love,

Follow Kevin on twitter @KWBaseball and visit his website KWBaseball.com

Walk With Me

“I’ve never done something like this before,” he said doubting my request.

“Stop fighting me on this one and come for a walk,” I replied in a soft but stern voice.

“OK, fine,” he said hesitantly.

“Great, see you tomorrow. 8am,” I said and walked out for the night.

My intent wasn’t to harm him. It wasn’t to show him some new analytic I slaved over all night. I wasn’t trying to change his swing to make it look like Donaldson’s. All I wanted him to do was come on a walk with me at 8 am the following morning – something he had never had a hitting coach ask him to do.

Over the years many have heard me say that hitting is a conversation. I believe in the power of communication, and more importantly, in the timing of the communication. Conversations are powerful, especially when the mentor, coach, or leader can be a world-class listener.

I’m a lifelong learner and in constant search of knowledge and learning from others who have experience finding success. I’m not into the one-size-fits-all approach; rather I’m trying to collect as many experiences as I can in order to influence as many different types of personalities as possible. To lead or coach, you need to be flexible. By listening how others have found success, it allows me to be flexible in my teachings and customize my message to the individual.

Learning To Separate

The thought occurred to me years ago while reading Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. In it, he talks about Jobs taking regular walks around his neighborhood to reflect, dream, and solve issues. He also liked to conduct his meetings via going on walks.

This fascinated me. I had been taking walks myself, but that was started only to stay in shape. My knees had been destroyed from playing (the slide rule wasn’t around when I played), and so running was not an option anymore. As I started walking more and more, I began to realize that walking was therapeutic. It no longer was just a physical exercise. It created self-awareness and stillness within me.

I began to experience what it truly meant to “separate.” One of my biggest downfalls as a player was that I couldn’t separate work from home. It’s a constant struggle that employees face in every industry, including baseball. There are many stresses that come from playing baseball (professional or amateur) that many outside of the game don’t realize. Players and coaches search longingly to experience that feeling of separation – to come to peace with themselves and find stillness in the “bubble” they live in. The season has been referred to by many as a “grind” and when you’re in the middle of working 7-days a week for 7 straight months, you don’t have time for anything else but practicing, playing and thinking baseball.

Morning Meeting

The city of St. Louis in July can be unpleasant at times. The suffocating humidity and the strong summer storms can take a beautiful city and turn it into a unpredictable landscape.

And not to mention, you’ve gone 0 for your last 21 – hang with ‘em kid.

As the clock struck 8 am on this particular July morning, I stood in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency with Starbucks in hand waiting for the player to come down from his room.

He walked through the elevator wearing sunglasses, jeans and a t-shirt with matching Jordan’s on his feet. You could tell that he had been up most of the night fighting his own demons in his head. He reached for the coffee – grabbing it out of my hand before saying a word – and took a sip. After savoring the first feeling of the day’s caffeine pulsating through his veins, he spoke his first words of the morning, “What’s up K-dub? Where are we going?”

We walked through the doors onto Chestnut Street and made a left in the direction of the Arch. My initial plan was to take a walk around the park and see where it took us. With caffeine powering us onward, we began our journey.

Finding Stillness On the Diamond and In Life

The conversation started by me asking him how he was feeling. I didn’t ask him how he was. That would have provided me a completely different answer that I wasn’t interested in at that moment. I wanted to know how he was feeling because at our core, when we are asked how we are feeling it touches upon different experiences in our mind, allowing us to emit more genuine and personal responses.

Just as I suspected, he said he was feeling like sh*t. He hadn’t slept at all that night. His mind was racing, and the only way he could wash his anxieties away was by drinking himself to sleep. It was the classic experience that far too many professional athletes find themselves in. He had tried every mechanical tweak he could during the past two weeks, but he wasn’t getting any results. He was doubting his ability. He felt he was on a short leash with the team and feared he was going to be sent back down to the minor leagues if he didn’t start producing.

By this time we had made our way onto the pathway toward the Arch. It was a magnificent view. The sun had begun to ascend into the clear blue summer sky, and its rays produced a soothing glow out over the Mississippi River.

I asked him WHY he was playing in the first place. It’s a question I had wanted to ask him for a while, but I felt that I needed to ask that question in person so I could look into his eyes and see his body language to make certain he wasn’t trying to tell me something I wanted to hear.

I needed the truth. So I asked him WHY.

He started to slow his pace and didn’t say a word for ten or twelve steps. All you could hear was the churning of the wheels of the passing steamboat. His silence told me a lot, but I loved every second of it.

The way we can influence and impact others in a positive manner is to ask questions – let’s begin here. But even more important is the fact that if we ask a better question, we can change someone’s life. As a leader/mentor/coach, for all of this to work, you have to value the power of silence. You don’t need to fill dead air with sound. Creating calmness and clarity happens when you allow the person you’re trying to help his or her own space. Embrace the silence. It’s both powerful and therapeutic. Just being in someone’s company is sometimes all that person needs. God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason.

Eventually, he began to speak. “I don’t know Kev. No one has ever asked me that before and I’ve never thought about it. Usually, people just ask me about my mechanics or what my thoughts are on a certain pitcher, etc. That’s deep man. I have to think about it. Is that bad?”

My purpose for taking him on this walk was to hopefully begin to provide stillness in his life. Some call is Zen. Others call it meditation. However you look at it, we all need reflection and self-awareness in our lives. Those moments where we can step back and look at the situation through a third party lens. It’s paying attention to the little things that become big things, whether they are good or bad. Ultimately, we are playing the singular game, both in baseball and in life.

Being Humbled

This game will humble you quickly, especially at the highest level, better known as Major League Baseball. During our walk I could sense he was so exhausted from fighting against the game and fighting against himself. There comes a point in everyone’s life when you are just sick and tired of being sick and tired.

As we continued to walk, I could see the tension begin to release from his shoulders. His pace slowed to a rhythmic stroll. His voice even dropped to a soft but reflective tone.

In response I said, “No it’s not bad. You’re certainly not the only one who has wondered WHY they are doing what they are doing for a living. It’s natural. You just haven’t reached this point in your life until now. It’s not something you should be ashamed of. But listen. How cool is this? Here is a wonderful opportunity for you to start spending more time on your WHY so that the HOW becomes easier.”

The look on his face was priceless. He was having trouble comprehending how the lowest point in his life could also be the most exciting time in his life. And equally as confusing, was the concept that finding his WHY could eventually help his batting average.

As we snaked through downtown St. Louis, we continued our conversation for almost two hours digging deep down into the person, and never once talking about hitting. We touched on his WHY, his purpose, anxieties, strengths, weaknesses, fears, etc. It was a deep dive into the person, an exercise he had never done before. There was raw emotion. There was confession. There were tears. There was enlightenment.

He admitted that for the first time in his life he had been humbled and he didn’t know how to handle it. He was searching for things outside of his control. He was trying to fix external things and neglecting the only thing that was truly in turmoil – his internal demons.

All It Takes Is 5 Minutes To Change Someone’s Life

I’m a big believer that all it takes is 5 minutes to change someone’s life. For those who have told me they don’t have 5 minutes to spare, I call BS. If anything is important to you, then you’ll make time for it.

5 Min Tweet

There are a lot of 5 minutes in the day. And our job as mentors, leaders and coaches is to take full advantage of those 5-minute conversations with your employees and players. They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

To lead is to inspire. And for us to inspire, we need to dig deep and find out WHY players do what they do. It not only will make them more productive but will enhance your team, organization or business because they are coming to work with a purpose. There isn’t a better employee or player out there than the one with a deep sense of purpose and WHY.

As we navigated through the streets of downtown, the more he talked, the more I listened. He started to understand WHY he was playing in the first place, the most powerful answer he could ever uncover. As he was talking out loud about things that were trapped down deep inside of him, he began to see how he got to this low point in the first place. It was all making sense to him. All I was doing was sipping my coffee and listening to him discover it all by himself.

The Walk

Since that day in St. Louis many years ago, I have taken many walks with players giving them the separation they need. It’s been fun listening as they talk about their feelings, ideas, families, reflections, etc and seeing that the more they dig at their WHY, the better they do on the field. Some will question if this REALLY works. My response to them is to TRY IT. It’s become such a valuable resource for some of the players, they now call me asking if I want to take a walk.

It’s certainly not for everyone. But overall, today’s player needs less mechanics, launch angles, and exit velo, and more conversations about WHY they are doing what they are doing. They need to make time to find purpose in their daily lives, which in turn, will create more self-awareness.

I’ll never turn down a walk. It changes too many lives. The best part about it all? No one knows about our walks. Well until now…

PS – If you’re wondering how the player has done since our walk, he’s still playing on your TV in 2017. He’s been an All-Star twice and has signed a long-term contract that has taken care of his family for many generations to come. Most importantly, he is a dear friend whose walks will be cherished long after his playing days come to an end.

Love,

Follow Kevin on twitter @KWBaseball and visit his website KWBaseball.com

Lead with WHY

Have you ever wondered WHY you’re doing something? WHY you’re slaving over your job? WHY you’re in a relationship? WHY you’re playing the game of baseball?

In a previous post, I shared the moment when I found my WHY. It literally changed the way I experienced life.

And for this, I’m forever grateful.

Now I want to help you find your WHY to live a more fulfilling and meaningful life.

For starters, I’ll share with you my WHY: to help others. Every morning I wake up, I’m grateful to be alive, and then I ask myself, “How can I help someone today?” This helps me set the tone for the day. Every day has meaning and purpose. It wasn’t always this way. It was something I had to learn.

Many go through life mindlessly doing tasks. There is little to no personal attachment to the task itself. There is little meaning or purpose behind what you do. Have you ever stepped back and asked WHY you do what you do? Is it just for the money? Is there something deeper? Do you know WHY you slave through your work?

When I found my WHY, I realized that I didn’t teach hitting just for the money. The purpose of the thousands of hours spent working in the cage was driven by my WHY – to help someone. Simple as that. I found great joy in seeing a hitter walk into the cage at a low point in their career and then walk out feeling like they had received a new lease on life. To me, that’s what it was all about: impacting the lives of others in a positive manner. Isn’t that WHY we are on this Earth to begin with?

How Do I Find My WHY?

I’m not the expert on finding your WHY, I’ll leave that up to someone like Simon Sinek. But I will share a few methods that have worked for me.

I love to take walks. It’s therapeutic for me, not to mention it helps me exercise and keep me healthy. Walks help me empty my mind, sift through tough decisions and most importantly help me reflect on life.

As Soren Kierkegaard once said, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” KW and Lollis at Nationals

During my walks, I was doing a lot of reflecting. I asked myself the same questions I asked you at the beginning on this post. WHY did I teach hitting? WHY did I wake up every day to go spend 6-10 hours in a cage? WHY did I drive and fly to all parts of the world to teach hitting to players and coaches?

During this time of reflection, I was doing a few little jobs on the side. I had a family to support at that time and even though the money was good being a hitting coach, I still was chasing the almighty dollar in hopes to support my family for years to come. I didn’t have the comfort of working for an MLB organization with pensions, etc so the only person who was going to take care of us in the future was me. I put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure my family would be taken care of.

During my walks, the most important question I asked myself was WHY was I doing these little side jobs?

The answers were powerful.

First, the side gigs were just ways to make money. I drifted through a job that I wasn’t invested in. It left me empty, unfulfilled, and worst of all, it pulled me away from the very family I tried to provide for. It doesn’t mean I didn’t work hard and give my best, but I didn’t have any personal connection with the jobs at the end of the day. I wasn’t excited to get out of bed to work these side jobs, thus the time spent was not fulfilling my WHY.

Second, I discovered I was a hitting coach because I wanted to help someone, not only with their swing but most importantly, with their life. I wanted to be a mentor – to guide them through the tough times on and off the field. I enjoyed inspiring others and baseball was the platform that enabled me to do those things. I was attacking each day with newfound purpose in everything I was doing. It was WHY I got out of bed every morning!

What Do You Want Your “dash” To Look Like?

When we die and are laid to rest, our tombstones all read the same. The year we are born, and the year we died, separated by a dash. It’s a simple little dash. Nothing fancy. Nothing big. This tiny mark of punctuation represents what we stand for, what or whom we impact, and ultimately what legacy we leave behind. What do you want your dash to look like?

I sent out a Morning Message recently:

Are you living your life in a way that is worth telling stories about?

Inspire someone today.

Love,

Who will tell your story? Will your dash be filled with examples of how you lead and inspired people with your WHY? Will you have helped others find their WHY? Or will your dash represent how many hours you slaved at the office? How much money you had in your bank account? Or how many hits you had in your career?

Do you know WHY you do what you do? Take time to reflect because your WHY is intimate. It’s individual. It’s genuine. It’s a complete understanding of YOU. It’s filled with purpose. It’s clarity. It’s natural.

Fill your dash with your WHY. Life is too short to only tell someone else’s story.

Love,

Follow Kevin on twitter @KWBaseball and visit his website KWBaseball.com

Inspire Someone Today

In the fall of 2013, I was just coming off being a part of something far greater than myself, winning a gold medal with the USA Baseball 18U National Team, serving as the team’s hitting coach.

Flashback a little more than a year earlier, on May 1, 2012, my father and I were in the CCU unit of a hospital making the hardest decision of our lives – having to pull the plug on my mother, Susan, due to complications from a surgery that happened three weeks prior.

I remember standing in the outfield at Intercontinental Stadium in Taichung, Taiwan crying, not because we had won the Gold, but because the emotions were still raw from that day more than a year ago. Since her passing, I didn’t have time to stop and reflect on what my mother meant to me and how much she had done for me during her time on this earth. And during a moment where I should have been joyful, instead, I found myself being overwhelmed with emotions of another breed.

After the celebrations had ended we hopped on a plane back to the States. I had more than 14 hours to reflect on everything that had transpired and I began to realize that in my reflections, I had started to understand the meaning and purpose in my life.

For so many years I was rushing through life. Always chasing. Chasing a dream. Chasing a number. Chasing a life I had imagined for myself as far back as I could imagine. And at that moment when the person who brought me into this world was taken away too soon, I suddenly felt empty.

It was a feeling I didn’t want anyone else to experience.

I was fortunate to grow up in a home with a loving mother and father who were there for me the entire time. To say that I grew up without any support or help, would be a lie. I was looked after, supported, cared for and inspired. I was given my share dose of tough love, especially from my mother. But at the end of the day when a big piece of me was taken away, I was left to wonder how I was going to carry the torch.

Timing Is Everything

I’m a big believer in timing. If you trust the timing of your life, you will be aware of situations, people, and experiences and will be able to take advantage of their teachings and guidance.

I hate to say it, but the death of my mother couldn’t have come at a better time in my life.

In 2012, I was a successful private hitting coach in the Philadelphia area, helping hitters become better people first and players second. At that time it was a job helping me to pay the bills, but it also found me searching for more. When my mom passed away, I began to figure out what I had been searching for.

I remember reading a book called Start With Why by Simon Sinek and I found myself glued to his Ted Talk studying the greatest lesson I never intended to find. He challenged me to find my purpose and write down WHY I was doing what I was doing. As I was reading and watching, I couldn’t help but embrace the feeling that was coming over me. I wasn’t doing what I did for a paycheck anymore. It was much bigger than that.

I had found my WHY.

My WHY is to help others. Help others hit. Help others grow personally. Help others find their purpose. Help others find their WHY. I was able to tie in what I did in the cage to something greater than myself. I truly understood WHY I did what I did!

I was called to be a servant leader.

Discovering Leadership: sometimes the smallest act of kindness makes the biggest impact

After coming down off a high like I never experienced before, I began wondering how I could impact the lives of others in a positive manner. After taking many walks to think about it (something I enjoy to do not only with myself but players I work with), I decided to write.

At first, writing was in the form of a daily group email sent to 20 of my closest friends and coaches.

Here is an example of an email that went out to the group on 11/27/13:

“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our greatest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light and not our darkness that frightens us.” – Mary Ann Williamson

Inspire someone today.

Love,
KW

I sent them out regularly. I wasn’t expecting anything in return. Each message had a purpose, and every one of them was meant to help me. But at the same time, I knew that if they helped me, there was someone else out there that could benefit from the message too. And if 20 people read it each day, maybe I could inspire and help at least one more person that day. It was beginning to fulfill my WHY in more ways than just a cage session.

This is how the Morning Message started to reach others outside of my circle of influence. Looking back, it’s powerful to think that when you lead with your WHY, others will begin to follow. They don’t necessarily follow you as a human being, rather, they attach themselves to your WHY and your message. They relate to your story. They have compassion for what you’re going through or went through in the past. They sense your genuineness, and understand you’re leading with your heart, and they want to join.

Today, that tiny act of kindness called, the Morning Message, impacts the lives of thousands ranging from Fortune 500 CEO’s all the way down to coaches, parents, and players.

At the end of 2013, I was benefiting from a new sense of purpose in my life, and I was finding new ways to inspire others and help them find their WHY. I woke up everyday with renewed energy because my WHY was starting to shine brightly and become my North Star.

How You React To A Situation Can Literally Change the Situation Itself

Just when you think you have it all going for you, life throws you a 3-1 breaking ball.

On February 11, 2014, I listened as the doctor said, “The tests have come back, and you have Leukemia.” What immediately followed was a piercing scream that resonated throughout the emergency room floor, and then silence fell all around me.

My instincts from my playing days kicked in. I switched gears and became laser focused. My heart beat went down, instead of up. I could feel my world slowing down instead of speeding up.

I asked the doctor if I could have a word with him. A sense of calm came over me as I slowly walked out of the hospital room and into the hallway to speak privately with the man who just had told us that my wife, Sarah, had been diagnosed with cancer at the age of 30.

Sarah needed me. She needed me to be calm. She needed me to be strong. And I needed her. I was in charge of navigating us through something we had never been through before…until that cold February morning on the 7th floor of the Rhoads building at the Hospital of The University of Pennsylvania.

It was a long and trying road, which included 34 straight days in the hospital, followed up by 115 chemo treatments, but my wife is a rock. She is one of the strongest people I know and how she handled everything was truly inspiring. I always tell the hitters I work with that how you react to a situation can literally change the situation itself. And our life in that hospital room is living proof of it. Today, I’m happy to report that since October 17, 2014, she has been in remission.

Becoming a Leader

You can always learn from any situation in your life. I certainly had a lot of teachable moments in the coming weeks after that eventful morning in the ER.

On your journey to becoming a leader, start by taking care of those you love. It’s about putting others first. It’s about being givers. Not takers.

There is more to life than how many followers you have on social media, or how many awards you have collected over the years. I could care less what your batting average was last year, or how many all-star teams you’ve made.

It’s about leading. Leading people. Leading hearts and leading souls. It’s about love. Loving others, even your enemies because life’s too short to carry grudges and jealousies. Others deserve our love, especially in the toughest of times.

To lead is to inspire. This concept is the foundation of my conversation with Joe Ferraro on Episode 43 of KWB Radio. If you haven’t listen to it yet, check it out here. And in order to inspire someone, it must come from the heart. It’s dipped in love with no ulterior motives attached.

I believe our purpose for being here on this earth is to impact the lives of others in a positive manner. You never know how what you say or what you write impacts another human being. Most times we never know because that person never shares with us how we positively impacted their life.

I encourage you to evaluate WHY you do what you do and find out what your purpose is on this earth.

We never know how long our stay on this earth will be. Every morning I wake up I sit on the side of my bed and say to myself, “I’m grateful to be alive and experience another day on this earth. Thank you, Lord. How can I help someone today?”

All it takes is five minutes to change someone’s life. How are you going to use your “5 minutes” today to inspire someone?

April 11, 2017

Your legacy isn’t your dream. Your greatest legacy is the next generation of dreamers your dream inspires.

Inspire someone today.

Love,
KW

Follow Kevin on twitter @KWBaseball and visit his website KWBaseball.com