The Fundamentals of Winning: Failure Analyzation

Mar 9, 2015

Have you ever given consideration to how you react when you fail? Do you simply try to do your best the next time? ...Or do you consider how to use the experience to your advantage and make yourself better? Failure is never the goal, but it is going to happen. It is also an opportunity to make ourselves better. Life isn't fair and neither is sports. In war, there is no such thing as fair. In fact, you make the situation as unfair for your enemy as possible and there is not a mercy rule. In athletics you want to do the same within ethical standards and proper sportsmanship. You can commit to be better prepared physically, mentally and stategically in order to have every advantage possible prior to the game starting. When we fail, we must avoid an infection. You must refuse to let it cause a growing frustration. Usually a weakness or an inconsistency in fundamentals has been exposed. The key is to identify it and begin correcting it. MAKE A WEAKNESS A STRENGTH. Sometimes it takes failure to be able to identify a weakness. Sometimes we are doing nothing wrong and have to continue aggressive application of fundamentals.... One of the best games I pitched came in the form of a loss. I came in relief late in a college baseball game and pitched 5 no hit innings. In extra innings with 2 outs, an error placed a runner on first which was followed by the first hit (a double). The run scored and ended the game just like that. Processing failure is vital. I had struck the guy out (who hit the double) twice. But he beat me once when it counted. He was able to keep analyzing me, keep applying fundamentals, and keep competing, until I got one pitch up in the zone after almost 6 innings of no hit baseball... and he was ready. They say luck is when preparation meets opportunity. I gave him one opportunity, and he was prepared. In the same manner I could not let one bad pitch or an "Loss" affect my next outing. We must Analyze Failure, even if it's one bad pitch or two strikeouts to create an opportunity to win. Your chance is coming. Are you ready? "It Pays to Be a Winner"