Batter Up

One Saturday afternoon while I was trying to decide what to do I pick up the TV remote and started flipping through the channels. As usual it looked hopeless. Then for some odd reason I stopped at a baseball game. Not being a sports enthusiast it seemed rather strange, but once again school was in session and the lessons of life was the material.

One after another the batters would come up to the plate. As each batter came into the batters box their batting average statistics were displayed. What I saw was that a good batter had a batting average of 325 - 350. This meant that 65-68% of the time these batters made the wrong decision! This was very intriguing to me. It seemed to me that all my life everywhere I looked people seemed to think you couldn't make mistakes on a continual basis and be a success. It seemed like everywhere you looked people screamed perfection, perfection, perfection! Yet here right before my very eyes was a contradiction to this very concept. These batters were professional athletes, successful and well Paid even thought 65-68% of the time they made the wrong decision.

I started to begin to wonder how this all applied to me, and it began to become very clear. First of all almost instantly there was a relinquishment of fear when I was confronted with a new endeavor, or a decision had to be made. I thought to myself "what’s the worst that could happen?" The answer was "well you may be wrong!" And my answer to that was "so what!" It started to become easier for me to show up for life regardless of the situation. What was important was that I suited up and showed at the plate, and when the ball came by I had to make a decision. Do I swing or don't I swing. And just as the batter watches the First Base Coach, and the Third Base Coach for signals on what he should do, the burden of the decision was not Solely on my shoulders. Through contemplative thought, and meditation I could gain guidance and direction on whether to swing the bat or not.

When the time for the decision came it didn't really matter if I swung and missed. It didn't really matter if I fouled out, flew out, grounded out, or if I got a single Double triple, or a home run, because it was now very clear to me that a career or a life is not built or broken one decision. Today I make it a habit to suit up and show up with bat in hand. I look for the signals from the First and Third Base Coach, and in the moment I make the best possible decision I can based on the knowledge or enlightenment I have in that moment, and you know what it’s not always the right decision, but I’m still a success. So just remember suit up and show up with bat in hand, and listen for your queue, it will sound something like this..."Batter Up!"

© Lester F. Schone, Jr. 1997

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