I was invited to play Wiffle Ball in the court yard yesterday. Wiffle Ballers know of the legendary dips and dives that the little sphere takes en route to the plate, making contact a mighty task. My first several at bats registered a weak pop-up, easy grounder and meek strikeout. Standing in the field on defense, I found myself counting down the outs until I could move on to something else. There were simply too many left to just waste in defeat.
The next time up, I made adjustments. Opened my stance a smidge. Gripped the bat more tightly.
Suddenly, the ball started smoking off the bat. By the end, when we were rallying from five runs down and within one during the last inning, the pitcher intentionally walked me with the tying run on third. It became the first time in any bat-related sport when the defense had decided that I was less dangerous on base than at the plate and issued a free pass.
But the point is the temporary nature of failure. How we respond makes the difference. I spent an hour on a blog post last week and then lost it all when the network crashed. I gave it a day off, then recreated it. It felt fine to let things cool down a while. We all lose, but none of us is a loser unless we decide to concede.
No comments:
Post a Comment