Written six years ago, when Jill first discovered the game.  Trotting it out now in honor of the first day of Spring.

As I write this, my daughter Jillian is beginning her journey into the wonderful world of girls softball.  The town league has started their practices and she’s right there with the rest of the “Edgewood Rockies.”  We’ve been practicing together for a few weeks now.
 
 
Actually it started with her oiling her glove and placing the ball in it and the rubber band around it for the long winter’s nap.  Then we started with throws back and forth.  What a trip it was watching her! 
 
 
A few things I noticed on her way to softball competence that are lessons for us all…
Jill had the hardest time holding still long enough to catch the ball.  I saw right up front that she did a little dance with her feet as the ball approached.  She caught a few this way and dropped many more.
 
 
On one particularly warm winter day she went outside and threw the ball up to herself…her version of “high pops.”  Everything was cool. 
 
 
Then I heard a scream that I’m sure made it onto the Richter scale. BANG…right on the nose. 
 
 
Actually, it was the best thing that could have happened to her.  She now knew softball as bad as it gets, and the fear of the unknown no longer existed.  Once the swelling went down, all was well.  As she progressed and started taking harder throws, the dancing feet thing became less and less prevalent. 
 
 
Of course, she found plenty of things to get mad at me about…mostly missed throws (my fault of course). 
 
 
After one of these errant throws (one in which my good natured joking got mistaken for teasing) Jill picked it up and threw a bullet right at my melon from close range.  I ducked out of self-defense.  That was it for the day.  I told her when she learns how to control herself and not put her unprotected Dad in harm’s way, we would play again. 
 
 
(Did I mention I wasn’t using a glove?  My hands look like cooked lobsters at the end of these sessions.)
The next day a more self-disciplined Jillian and I went outside for another catch.  I asked her for the glove to prove a point.  Once I got it on I stood at close range and told her to take her best shot.  To coax her into a hard throw I did a little butt shaking, raspberry blowing, and told her she plays like a GIRL! 
 
 
That’s all it took.  She threw lasers at me.  And I caught each and every one of them.

The point…when you have the right equipment and know how to use it, you’re UNSTOPPABLE! 
 
 
That one she figured out.  At that point the little foot dance she did before the throws almost completely stopped and she hung in there like a trooper.  Even the misses weren’t so profound.
She got confidence in her equipment and confidence in her ability to master that equipment.

***   ***
 
NOW…what equipment can you master that will give you the CONFIDENCE to hold still and do what needs to be done?
 
 
And how will you use those new skills to build even more skills?  Jill now has the confidence to start batting!

It’s about trusting your equipment and trusting yourself.
 
 
I know you can stand in there and do it.

Batter Up!
Larry

www.NoMoreHoldingBack.com

Larry’s Amazing Videos: http://Youtube.com/lhochman 

Bodies in motion tend to stay in motion. Bodies at rest tend to stay at rest.That’s some law of physics. Never having taken the subject myself, I don’t you the name of the law. Anyone who does know it is asked to please contact me with the proper name.This is also a law of prosperity. I’m considering it now as I look across the names of people with whom I work. Some bodies are in motion and some bodies are at rest.

The ones who are in motion continue to move. It’s like a rat in a maze. They’re looking for a way to move forward, and sometimes they get stuck.

The great part is that people are not rats. Rats have a very limited ability to learn from mistakes. People can do so much more easily.

The ones who continue to stay in motion eventually find their way out of the maze…out of the Rat Race. They get to the finish line where something good is waiting for them.

But as I said…bodies in motion tend to stay in motion. These winners who escape from the maze usually take a little bit of time to do their celebration dance…The Funky Chicken or whatever.

Then they go back and look for another race.

The bodies at rest tend to stay at rest. Something motivated them at some point to jump into the little maze. But when they got there, they remembered that they are bodies at rest, and went back to that truism of physics…bodies at rest tend to stay at rest.

They went back and rested.

Now that wouldn’t be so bad if the world stood still. Keep in mind that when you rest, everyone else is moving around you. When you finish your rest, everyone else is in a little bit of a different place than you were at the beginning of your rest.

This is why you see people in their 40s and 50s who didn’t make any strides in life suddenly find themselves trying to play catch up after neglecting their physical, spiritual and financial
existences for years.

And although anyone can change anytime they are motivated enough to do so, remember one more time that old truism…

Bodies at rest tend to stay at rest.

Which law of physics embodies your life? If you’re here, it’s probably bodies in motion. But it could be the bodies at rest deal, and your trying to break your pattern.

If that’s you, then you’re a HERO! Give yourself a pat on the back!

Do your Funky Chicken dance for half a minute…

Then go out and get in motion…

…and STAY in motion!

Kinetically Yours,
Larry

http://NoMoreHoldingBack.com