With the recent epidemic of steroids in baseball it just goes to show the great lengths that athletes will go in order to improve and take their games to the next level. The most successful athletes are constantly on the look out for ways to “get an edge” on their opponent. However I ask the question, “Are they really willing to do all that it takes to take their game to the next level?” I think athletes have proven that they will sacrifice almost anything in order to get this edge. They have proven that they are willing to sacrifice time with their families, their reputation, and even their health in order to get this edge and put some extra money in their pocket. But, what is the one thing that most athletes are unwilling to sacrifice for this edge? Ironically, what is the one thing that if they did sacrifice it would bring them improvement like they never imagined? What could they sacrifice that would allow them to improve at a ridiculous level and still allow them to keep their health, their family, and their reputation? Very simply, their EGO!
Our ego, our sense of self, our idea that we carry around with us of who we are is the number one limiting factor in baseball and in our lives. I find it amazing that athletes at all levels are willing to go to such great lengths to succeed however the hardest and most frightening thing for most athletes is to be able to look themselves in the mirror and admit that: 1) They are not performing to the level they desire and they need to change who they are to get better and 2) They might have been doing it all wrong their entire career. Most athletes, coaches, and instructors believe they have it all figured out. They believe that the instructor they go to is good, they believe that they are good, and they believe that they are playing at the level they were born to play at. If for some reason they don’t reach a level of performance that they desire they immediately begin to blame it on “genetics” or the “natural born athlete theory”, all in an attempt to protect their ego, knowing that they, “Got the most out of what they were given.”
I mean seriously, when you really sit down and think about it, it absolutely comical. As I have read through the list of players that so far have been found to have taken steroids I am amazed. Not so much because they took the steroids but rather because a small adjustment to their mechanics, their mental approach, their attitude, their nutrition, or their training regiment and they would have produced similar or even greater results then they produced on steroids. They suffered from a limited mindset, they just couldn’t believe that they might be doing something wrong. That maybe they could reach the levels they desired if they just opened their mind to what might be possible. I mean just think, you’ve been playing a certain way for your entire career and one small mechanical adjustment, one small change in how you perceive situations and you’d be a great player. This might be difficult for most athletes because most athletes couldn’t handle the idea that they have been doing things wrong. This would show weakness or a chink in the armor. Needless to say, this is a scary proposition!
I see this all the time. I see young players, players in high school who might be solid players but they look up to other, better players. They talk about these guys like they’re from another planet but not once do they try and change what it is they are doing in order to reach the same level of performance as the players they look up to. It’s far too easy to simply blame the better player’s performance on “natural ability” I mean you don’t have to change anything about your routine if that player was just born to be better then you. Players and parents alike are afraid to admit that they have been taking their athlete to the wrong instructor, trainer, or even school. They don’t want to admit that it is possible that they could be performing at the levels of the players they look up to if they simply change the way they do things.
I also see this at the major league level on a daily basis. I have worked with major league players in the past and it amazes me at their reluctance to change things. In some of the players I have been around if they would change simple aspects of their swing or even undergo a complete swing overhaul they would, without question, produce numbers greater then they ever have in their career. At the major league level this can equate to millions of dollars in that players bank account. Yet these players continue to do things the way they’ve always done them. As a result they continue to experience limited performance and the same results they’ve always gotten.
I know this to be true in my own life and baseball career. I spent most of my career with no guidance on what the proper mechanics were or what I needed to do mentally to unlock my limitless potential. At the same time however I never wanted to show weakness. I wanted to be good, I wanted people to think I was good, and I spent most of my time in utter panic that people would find out that I wasn’t very good. It wasn’t until I was willing to face my own demons, until I was ready to look in the mirror and admit to myself that I wasn’t very good and accept the fact that I wasn’t very good that I finally began to improve. You see in order to reach the levels you desire to reach you must be open to all possibilities. You must be willing to learn and accept that who you currently are just might not be good enough (a very difficult thing to do). Most recently in my life I had to go through the same process in order to change the situation I was in and situations that kept recurring in my daily life. I had to look in the mirror, admit that I didn’t like who I had become or how I did things and then systematically begin to make changes.
Once I opened my mind to the fact that anything was possible and once I separated myself from my own ego, my own idea of who I was, answers began to come faster then I ever expected. Ideas on how to improve physically and mentally began to come to me from every direction. I began to put things together and see things that I never saw before. At the same time my improvement as an athlete began to take off. I started doing things on the field that I had once only dreamed of and the more I learned I started to exceed these dreams and become a player that I had never dreamed possible.
I am not going to lie to you. Going through the process is an extremely difficult thing. It’s a daily battle to change your conditioning both physically and mentally. You start to see more and more things that you want to change and for a while you have a sense that you are getting worse and not better. Your ego will fight to stay in control and there will be times that you’ll feel like giving up. If you really want to improve you must stay the course. You must be willing to face these demons if you truly want to reach the levels of performance you desire to reach.
So I guess the real question is, “How bad do you want it?” Are you like most athletes who are willing to do the extra physical work and leave it at that? Are you going to take the easy way out and chalk everything up to, “natural born talent”? Or, are you willing to look in the mirror, face down your ego, and really change? Do you want to experience a level of performance that only a handful of athletes ever enjoy? Are you willing to change the way to eat, train, act, work, think, and feel in order to reach these levels of performance? Are you willing to set aside your idea of your own self importance to finally perform at these levels? Don’t be like most athletes. Desire something more. Be willing to change who you are in order to reach the goals you have. It is a difficult road but you may find that while in the process of changing yourself athletically you might end up changing your life. I know I have!
