I always tell people, you can stop as many times as you want, just don’t stop moving your feet.
Too many people stop.
Too many people quit.
Too many people give up.
Those who persist are the ones who make it.
You don’t have to be great to persist.
HANG ON UNTIL YOU CATCH ON.
As everyone else is giving up, guess who will be left?
YOU.
“When you start thinking is when you get your ass beat.”
-SPARKY LYLE
Happy Birthday to the best switch-hitter of all time, Mickey Charles Mantle of the New York Yankees.
The Mick was the most popular player of his generation. He hit tape-measure home runs.
He ran from home to first in 3.1 seconds.
He made spectacular catches in centerfield.
And he played basically on one leg.
In his first season in the big leagues, Mantle got his spikes stuck in a drain in the outfield, trying to avoid the great Joe DiMaggio, in his final season. Mickey would never be the same. It was the beginning of a career filled with injuries.
Last week, I was at the Yogi Berra Museum and Jane Leavy was doing a talk and book signing on “The Last Boy, Mickey Mantle.” She once asked Mickey when the last time he played without pain was.
Mickey said, “When I was 18.”
He basically played his entire career injured.
And I know what you might be thinking, “Mickey was a great ballplayer, but he was an alcoholic.”
What most people don’t know is that Mickey was sexually abused as a child.
He thought he was going to die young, like the rest of the men in his family (he was the only one who lived past age 45).
So he lived every day like it was his last.
Nobody knows what he was going through.
One of my favorite photos is of a home run that Mickey hit 18 inches shy of clearing Yankee Stadium. It was 118 feet above field level and was said to have been still rising.
His home runs were legendary.
But so was his courage.
At the end of his life, he became sober. He wanted others to learn from his mistakes. He was helping others. They say he left this world in peace.
That may have been his greatest accomplishment.
A true role model.
None of us are perfect, I know I’m not.
So as I think about Mickey Charles Mantle on this day, I think of one of the greatest baseball players in the history of the game, but I also think of one of the bravest and most honest people, as well.
I never met Mickey, but I have done my share of research on him.
One thing is for sure, he had courage; on and off the field.
“The softest pillow is a clear conscience.”
-JOHN WOODEN
I want to give you a test. It’s called the pillow test.
Tonight, when you put your head on the pillow, see which of the following you say to yourself…
“I’m glad I did.”
OR
“I wish I had.”
See, one of the mental toughness secrets of the greatest athletes in history is this…
THEY GO ALL OUT.
Or, as I always say, “It’s better to go all-out and lose than it is to hold back and win. Because when you hold back, you are training yourself to hold back.”
As you go through your day, you will have many decisions to make, and the only thing you should consider is this…
“Am I going to go all-out or am I going to hold back?”
Let me know how you do on the test.
Leave your comments below and thanks for reading.
So tonight I’m heading up to the Bronx for Game 3 of the ALCS, Yankees versus the Rangers.
Andy Pettitte versus Cliff Lee.
Cliff Lee is a great pitcher. He is 6-0 in postseason play. Everyone is expecting the Yankees to lose.
One thing that I know, is that NOTHING is a guarantee in sports (and life).
The best pitcher (or team for that matter) doesn’t win.
The pitcher (or team) that PLAYS best wins.
Records don’t matter. Reputations don’t matter.
As a matter of fact, Derek Jeter said, “Reputation doesn’t win games. You still have to go out there and pitch.”
It’s all about who performs better on that day.
It all starts at 8:07pm tonight.
Every day I see athletes playing it safe.
This is the wrong strategy.
Now, don’t get me wrong because there is a time to be safe, but for the most part it is better to go all-out than it is to hold back.
Jimmy Johnson once said, “Really it comes down to your philosophy. Do you want to play it safe and be good or do you want to take a chance and be great?”
I was teaching today and as you can imagine, I try to stay on the positive side of things. Well, as part of our warmup, I have my students skip across the court. Without fail, they smile while they are doing it. So I said, “It’s hard to do that without smiling. That means, whenever you are in a bad mood, miss a shot or someone does something mean to you, just start skipping.”
The lesson began and one of my students who made a negative comment while walking on to the court, missed a shot.
Guess what?
She said, “I’ll just skip it off.”
And she did and felt better.
And she performed better.
Can you apply this to your life?
“Practice makes imperfect. People practice until they ‘think’ they know it. The key is to remain a learner.”
-ELLEN LANGER, Ph.D, Harvard
In conversations I’ve had with Dr. Langer, we spoke about how when practicing, athletes need to be mindful. Don’t just practice in perfect conditions, practice in realistic conditions, i.e., in tennis, practice hitting balls with different pace, spin, and depth coming at you. Practice in sun and wind and extreme cold and heat. Practice with people better than you. Practice with people worse than you.
Notice what is happening, make adjustments.
Rarely will conditions be perfect, so why practice that way?
There are two types of people in the world…
Those who take action.
And those who don’t.
As I work on my forthcoming book, “The Pinstripe Principles: Why The Yankees Are So Mentally Tough (and how you can be too),” I am reaching out to people that I never thought I would ever talk to.
Yesterday, I interviewed Babe Ruth’s daughter, Julia Ruth Stevens. Last night I was chatting with Yogi Berra’s wife, Carmen.
Jorge Posada has already agreed to speak with me after the season is over.
I also spoke with John Zieman at the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum and he already wants me to do a book signing next season.
And this is just the beginning.
But what does this have to do with you?
You have to take action.
You can’t just talk about writing a book, or taking up the guitar, or eating better, or studying, or practicing.
Anyone can talk about what they’re going to do.
But the successful people DO what they’re going to do.
Did you know that whatever you think about during the 30 minutes before you go to bed gets replayed in your mind 15 or more times while you’re sleeping?
What do you do right before bed?
Do you watch the news, ie, the down economy, terrorism, food recalls, shootings, etc?
Or do you cultivate gratitude for all you have in your life?
Do you think about what you have to do tomorrow and visualize it going the way you planned?
Your focus is your future.
Think about what you want to happen and don’t give energy to what you don’t.