As baseball season winds down, I am reminded of one of my favorite stories. It seems that a man stopped to watch a Little League Baseball game. He asked one of the youngsters what the score was.
“We’re behind 18 to nothing,” the kid answered. “Well,” said the man, “I must say you don’t look discouraged.”
“Discouraged?” the boy said, puzzled. “Why should we be discouraged? We haven’t come to bat yet.”
Now that’s confidence.
Arnold Palmer was one of the greatest golfers in golf history. He was a champion multiple times, tremendously successful, and a very inspirational athlete. While Palmer won many majors, he kept in his office the trophy for his first professional tournament win – the Canadian Open. Along with that trophy came a plaque, which he placed on the wall. Inscribed on the plaque was a poem written by Walter D. Wintle and published in 1905:
If you think you’re beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win but think you can’t,
It’s almost certain that you won’t.
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger woman or man,
But sooner or later, those who win
Are those who think they can.*
If your confidence is based on micromanaging the odds of achieving victory, you’ll lose a lot. The great winners are those like Palmer and other athletes who win when defeat looks pre-ordained. They do not waste their time in mental calculus. Instead, they are buoyed by their self-confidence and solely focused on achieving the task.
Maintain your confidence, focus on the task, and don’t let the odds distract you. You’ll capture your share of victories snatched from the jaws of defeat.
Mark
Author of Holy Chaos How To Walk with God in a Frenzied World
* Baseball anecdote attributed to The Best of Bits and Pieces, Copyright 1994 by The Economics Press, Inc.