Today I interviewed a college baseball coach. Not my usual writing genre, but he said something so simple and yet so profound to me. He shared with me, that he tells his team often, “You don’t need a scoreboard to tell you if you are a winner.”
Right? Just let that soak in for a moment. Of course for many of us, our “scoreboard” may be the opinion of others, or the amount of money we accrue, or the approval of those closest to us. What the coach was getting to was, that in each of us we know if we’ve hit our stride….given 100%, been the best we can be, met our goals head on. Many of us, tend to judge ourselves way harder than we would have the courage to judge others. We see our failings so clearly, while the success seem more muddled. But, even so, we can sense that we are doing our best.. that each “up at bat” we take the swing.
While certainly I am on the way, life is a journey, and I am not yet convinced that we ever arrive at some magical destination where you get to just stop swinging….. I think of the million things that I have failed with. Relationships, jobs, and a whole list of other things. But, as the coach talked, he didn’t breeze past those failings, what he did say was, that if we learn from them, then somehow they simply move into the success column. They are no longer failings, but rather life lessons, steps that move us forward.
I dream of the day that I don’t stumble and fall… when the silent battles are won, but until then it helps to know that as long as I am learning, I can continue to move those failings into the winning column. Aren’t you glad to know that you don’t need a scoreboard to tell you that you’re a winner? I am. Thanks Coach!
A Cowgirl Called 