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Issue 363 - Each at-bat is a new day. (Joe Torre Part Six)

Woodens Wisdom
Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 8 Issue 363
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EACH AT-BAT IS A NEW DAY (JOE TORRE - PART SIX)

 
 
Hall of Famer Joe Torre was a major league manager for 30 seasons. From 1996 to 2007, Torre was the manager of the New York Yankees and guided the team to four World Series championships. He is one of only five managers in history to win four or more World Series titles and one of only two in history to win three titles in a row.
 
Torre spent 28 seasons (4,272 games) as a player and a manager before he made his first World Series (the longest wait for anybody in the history of the game). Then he made history. In his book Ground Rules for Winners, Torre writes about two important qualities that helped him and can help you persevere and achieve your goals:
 
"1. Maintain Your Perspective. Don’t overreact to current troubles; remember past accomplishments that help keep your confidence high. For instance: After a bad day, remind yourself of the deals made, clients landed, steps up the ladder taken. Learn from mistakes; don't use them to beat up on yourself. Hold onto your sense of humor.
 
During my eight years as a player with the Braves, I was fortunate to hit behind baseball's all-time home run king, Hank Aaron. One day, Hank and I were talking about batting slumps when he made a comment that's stayed with me ever since: "Each at-bat is a new day."
 
No matter what our line of work, we all endure slumps. When we find ourselves in a rut, "Each at-bat is a new day" is a line worth remembering. I'd take it even further: We don't just have the opportunity to start fresh each day. We have the opportunity to start fresh each moment.
 
2. Stay optimistic. Drive, Competitiveness, Determination, Commitment are qualities we associate with winners. But each one of these characteristics depends on one other: optimism. Without optimism—that gut-level belief that we can succeed—we are far less likely to realize our dreams. Setbacks and slumps will stop us cold if we don't have basic faith in ourselves. No matter how badly we want to succeed, if we don't feel optimistic about our abilities and our potential, every day is going to be a struggle.
 
Life deals its blows to each one of us. Whether the set-backs occur in our personal or professional lives, they can ruin our dreams for success—if we let them. Optimism is the ability to accept negative events without allowing them to destroy our resolve. Slumps are inevitable, they aren't signs that we don't have what it takes to succeed. Here's my bottom line: Acknowledge that you've had a bad day, but don't live there. Move on with as much confidence as you can muster.
 
Don't tell yourself what you cannot do. Let your competition do that. Managers and team players alike must corner the market on positive thoughts."
 
How is your perspective? Are you optimistic?
 
 
 

Yours in Coaching,
 
 
Craig Impelman
 
 
 
 


 

 

 

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Application Exercise

COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE

 

The Fight With Self

We ALL have fights to make with self,
And these are the bitterest fights of all,
Worse than the fight for a hoard of pelf
Is the fight to master our vices small;
Worse than the fight on the battle line
Is the struggle that many a man goes through
To rid himself of the thirst for wine,
That he may live as he wants to do.

Temptation knocks at the good priest's door,
And fierce is the struggle within his breast,
But he kneels and prays till the siege is o'er
And rises a victor in the test.
And man and woman must fight as he
The things of self that would drag us down,
And over ourselves get the mastery
Else all we gain is a paper crown.

Oh, the fight for wealth and the fight for fame,
The fight for glory and world applause;
The struggle, too, for an honored name,
And I 'd list the fight for a noble cause,
Are simple things, if the truth were known,
Compared to the struggle a man goes through
In his fight with self, when he's all alone,
To live a life that is clean and true.

Edgar Allen Guest (1881-1959)

 

 

 

 

 

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