You Gotta Have Fun!

It seems like this almost goes without saying. I mean baseball is a game and we started playing this game because we love it and it’s a lot of fun. The problem is that the farther we progress up the ladder and the farther we get away from the innocence of our childhood we tend to forget why we play this great sport. It starts to become more about other things. Our ego (or how good we are or how good our kid is), making a particular team, reaching certain performance goals, getting a scholarship, winning a championship, or any number of other things that takes us away from the game in it’s most natural and purest form. All of these things take us away from the real reason we started playing in the first place. We have this belief that I’ll enjoy it when I reach this level or that level or I’ll enjoy it when I get a few more hits or reach a certain statistical plateau. Parents will say they’ll enjoy it when their child gets to college or signs a professional contract. The problem is this way of thinking prevents us from ever enjoying it or having fun when we play. As Dr. Wayne Dyer says it puts us in a state of, “striving yet never arriving.” There will always be another level to reach, higher stats to obtain, all star teams to make, hits to get, and so on. Parents and athletes alike forget to have fun and enjoy where they are at in this moment and as a result the playing career ends and we’re left looking back wishing we could still play thinking we should have enjoyed it more. Wether your career is over at 18 or 45 if you don’t take time to have fun and enjoy it right now you never will.

This mentality can affect performance as well. When we are in a state of joy this is the most optimal state of allowing. In this state the subconscious easily communicates to the body and allows the athlete to play “in the zone”. In this state athletes are completely free from negativity that hampers their performance. So not only will you enjoy playing more but having fun will actually increase your performance giving you the ability to repeat your mechanics more often. As a wise man once told me, “You don’t have fun because your having success, you have success because you’re having fun.” At your next game make your goal to have as much fun as possible. Tell yourself that regardless of what comes your way during that game you are going to have fun, enjoy every moment of getting to play and watch how your performance increases.