When I was in my final season of baseball in high school, I took a few trips down to University Of Southern California to learn from a very famous pitching coach named Tom House.
What made Tom so famous wasn't his own career in the MLB as a pitcher, but the fact that he was Nolan Ryan's (the most famous pitcher of all time) pitching coach.
After a dead silent bullpen session that lasted about 60-80 pitches, Tom looked over at me and said words that I would never forget...and will probably never forget for the rest of my life.
He said to me, "Evan. 10% of the time you are going to be amazing, 10% of the time you are going to suck worse than imaginable, and 80% of the time you are going to be just average.
Champions are made in that 80%."
80% of the days you have you are going to feel average. That's right. Average. Nothing great about the day. Nothing crappy about the day. Just "meh."
Now that may seem like a nasty realization about life, but there's a secret to all of this.
You get to decide how your day is going to go. You can either rise to the challenge or let your day slowly dwindle down into the depths.
You get the choice of either rising to the challenge or sinking back down into the depths. You get to make the decision to do the hard work and grind through it all or give up completely. But that decision is completely up to you and on you to make.
Even though those decisions don't have an audience, they are the foundations to your integrity as a human being. They may seem like small choices, but eventually they add up and make a huge impact on your life.
Most of the time you will spend hours and hours working your butt off and no one will ever see you put the time and effort in.
But that's not the point. The point is this...
You know...
You know how much time you put into something and how much effort you really devoted to becoming the best person you could be. Further, you know that you decided to take that 80% "meh" day and turn up the heat so you could make it a fantastic day.
To make it to the end of your life knowing that you gave it your all would lead to a lot of big smiles in your final moments. You knew that you really did it and gave your heart the best chance it had to see it's wishes through.
That's really the only way to do it. Go big or go home.
So decide that you are going to make the most of those 80% days and become a champion. Have the best year of your life.
What made Tom so famous wasn't his own career in the MLB as a pitcher, but the fact that he was Nolan Ryan's (the most famous pitcher of all time) pitching coach.
After a dead silent bullpen session that lasted about 60-80 pitches, Tom looked over at me and said words that I would never forget...and will probably never forget for the rest of my life.
He said to me, "Evan. 10% of the time you are going to be amazing, 10% of the time you are going to suck worse than imaginable, and 80% of the time you are going to be just average.
Champions are made in that 80%."
80% of the days you have you are going to feel average. That's right. Average. Nothing great about the day. Nothing crappy about the day. Just "meh."
Now that may seem like a nasty realization about life, but there's a secret to all of this.
You get to decide how your day is going to go. You can either rise to the challenge or let your day slowly dwindle down into the depths.
You get the choice of either rising to the challenge or sinking back down into the depths. You get to make the decision to do the hard work and grind through it all or give up completely. But that decision is completely up to you and on you to make.
Even though those decisions don't have an audience, they are the foundations to your integrity as a human being. They may seem like small choices, but eventually they add up and make a huge impact on your life.
Most of the time you will spend hours and hours working your butt off and no one will ever see you put the time and effort in.
But that's not the point. The point is this...
You know...
You know how much time you put into something and how much effort you really devoted to becoming the best person you could be. Further, you know that you decided to take that 80% "meh" day and turn up the heat so you could make it a fantastic day.
To make it to the end of your life knowing that you gave it your all would lead to a lot of big smiles in your final moments. You knew that you really did it and gave your heart the best chance it had to see it's wishes through.
That's really the only way to do it. Go big or go home.
So decide that you are going to make the most of those 80% days and become a champion. Have the best year of your life.
About the Author:
Evan Sanders is a professional life coach at AYKME coaching. Dive into the meaning of integrity by clicking here or read more quotes about changing for life.
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