Coaches Corner: Compared To What

Date: January 28, 2019
By: Brendan Dougherty

Everything that we hear today is that kids are entitled and it’s too easy for them to just quit or jump from team to team when things just are not going his or her way. I agree that there is way too much of that going on, but where does that come from? All kids are born with basically a clean slate and they are given information from many different areas (parents, coach’s, teachers and other adults.) Even their friends are constantly giving them information to process. They are just doing what they think is correct, based on the information they have been given. In my mind it is not the kid’s fault it is more often where the information is coming from and being allowed to take the easy road. We as adults and leaders have to have a “Compared to What” mentality or a “Get to” instead of “Have to” mentality.

The “Compared to What” mentality is something that can be worked on every day. It should be part of your daily routine. A great way to remind yourself of this is to create a perspective poster. Find some pictures of things that have made an impact in your life at some point. Put them onto a poster and hang it in your room or office so that you can see it every day. I have put an example of mine at the bottom of this article. The pictures represent things in my life that remind me to stay positive and keep working. You are going to have difficult times during your career but you have to understand it is only a game. You have to be able to stay positive and be able to say to yourself “Compared to what”.

Do you say I GET TO GO TO PRACTICE TODAY OR I HAVE TO GO TO PRACTICE TODAY? I GET TO TAKE THAT TEST OR I HAVE TO TAKE THAT TEST.  Baseball is a difficult game and it challenges us at every moment. This is why we are in love with it the challenge and the reward at the end of that challenge. It also may be the failure that brings you back day in and day out. There is something about this game that makes us all continue to want to coach it, play it, or watch it. We have to understand that we must have the right perspective. You have to be able to say COMPARED TO WHAT!!