Playing the Long Game | In order to go fast, you gotta go slow.
We live in a society where people want everything at the touch of a finger. They want success without the hard work. They want result after the first try. They want pleasure without the pain.
We want things fast and we want them now. We don’t have much patience for playing the “long game.”
When is the last time you deliberately did something today that you know will impact your life a year or two down the road? When is the last time you did something deliberately at the beginning of the off season that you know would make impacts during late August of the upcoming season?
A Mentor’s Vision
First and foremost, coaches are mentors. And one of the many jobs of being a mentor is having the vision for the player. The job of the player is to focus on the task at hand and to stay in the present moment – or “be where their feet are.”
Have you ever taken a walk and asked yourself what you’re willing to sacrifice to get to where you want to go? Have you ever asked yourself how long you’re willing to wait to reach your goal? Has it ever occurred to you that if you embrace the timing of your life, you will embrace the actionable steps needed to accomplish your dreams? Before any work can be done, perspective needs to be found before analysis can follow. If you haven’t read the story of how we do this, check it out here.
When I first sit down with a player, I never know what chapter of their life I’m walking in on.
Some of them are in the darkest place of their life and career and it requires me to be sensitive to their story, which helps me create a development plan to get them back on track and focused on their PURPOSE and WHY.
How Long Are You Willing to Wait?
In life, we hardly get what we want, when we want it. We catch ourselves pushing forward in hopes of creating it all on our own. The more experiences we try and create on our own, sheds light on an understanding that we are not in control of as many things as we once thought.
But a big part of playing the long game is being aware of where you’re at in the current moment and focusing on the present, knowing if you take care of the little things, they will eventually lead you to bigger and better things.
This, however, takes time.
This is a common discussion I have with players. The moment you get drafted is NOT the moment you have arrived. It’s the opportunity someone handed you to begin your journey.
If you view each step of your career (and life) as individual stepping stones, you appreciate how many blocks it takes to build your foundation for success.
For example, I like to break the season down into seven days. Essentially 7-day “seasons.” I share with players that every Monday is Opening Day and every Sunday is the last day in the “season.” It’s a lot easier to manage seven days at a time than it is to manage 26 weeks during a Major League Baseball season.
When Monday starts, you have a plan in place. This plan includes goals for the week with things such as: I want to hit as many fastballs as I can this week, I want to hit pitches only in my “margin for success,” I want to be on time for as many fastballs as I can. The goals vary from individual to individual.
And after the game ends on Sunday, we take a look back on the week and see how well we did in executing our goal(s).
We are not worried about how many hits we got.
We are not worried about how good our launch angle was.
We are not worried about what our on-base percentage was.
We want to know if we executed our goals.
The information and feedback we receive on Sunday will help us formulate our plan and approach for the next seven days.
And we simply rinse and repeat every Sunday evening.
This approach to playing the long-game requires patience. If you focus on seven days at a time, you will be amazed at how quickly the season goes by. At the end of the season, you will look back and be able to see the progress and trace the steps of your success with clarity and understanding.
[ Our program has been developed over years of working with players and coaches at the big league level, and I love sharing it with coaches and players to give them a chance to maximize their talent. Drop me a message and I’d love to give you more. ]
At the end of the year, players comment that they not only achieved or even exceeded their goals they had at the beginning of the year, but they marvel at how they achieved them – by having a purposeful plan and approach every single day. Not once were they chasing numbers. They were managing things they could control on a daily basis.
Are you putting the cart before the horse? Are you putting your goals before your purpose? What happens when you don’t get what you want, when you want it? Are you willing to practice delayed gratification?
Just because it doesn’t happen the first time doesn’t mean you quit. Comfort comes from repetition.
Love,
KW
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 Sellers The #GoodBatting Book and Finding Clarity: A Mindful Look Into the Art of Hitting 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