A Simple and Effective Formula When Dealing with Adversity
By: Coach Ron Wolforth
Baseball, at its core, is a game of failure. No matter how good you currently are at it, the game of baseball will eventually humble you.
While listening to John Smoltz on one of Team USA’s games in the WBC, he made this very point. He reiterated that in his experience, we will never completely master the game of baseball. The best we can do is constantly work on our skills, abilities, and our approach. Thinking we have baseball mastered, or the multitude of challenges of the game itself solved, is naive, irrational, and possibly problematic.
Yet, I see it almost every single week.
Now that baseball season for many of you is well underway, so too have come the inevitable failures, challenges, and adversities. The real question is, what are you going to do about it?
One of the common things people do when faced with the inevitable adversities of life is to marinate in the emotion and fret over all the variables that may have contributed to the problem, and indeed may further exacerbate it. I do stress ALL the variables, even and especially, the ones outside of our control or influence.
We’ve all done it. We’ve all “worried about the weather” so to speak.
Here’s the rub… We all only have so much energy to give to problems and their solutions. I suggest a simple formula for maximizing our response to adversity.
Notice I said “simple” … Not “easy”.
Because we are primarily emotional beings, so often we get stuck in the emotion of our difficulties. Following the formula will NOT be easy, but I promise you, it will be helpful.
The Formula for Dealing with Adversity:
Step #1: Learn the lesson. Quickly identify the primary thing(s) this specific experience is teaching you (three max.).
Don’t go past three… EVER. If it’s that complicated, first deal with the top one to three primary issues, then possibly circle back around. But don’t get bogged down in the complexity! A vast majority of the time, you will find that learning the primary lessons and dealing with those effectively will significantly change the dynamic of the situation for the better.
But I do emphasize… LEARN THE LESSON.
Repeating the same thing again and again and expecting a different result is indeed a form of insanity.
It might be helpful to actually ask your brain, “What am I supposed to learn here?”. Your unconscious brain will go to work for you. The more often you ask it, and the better questions you ask it, the better your answers will become.
Step #2: Focus on what YOU can control. Inside these “lessons” are actionable pieces that are within your control.
Spend ALL of your energy here. It’s truthfully the only part that is within your ability to change anyway, the rest is simply a distraction. Frustration occurs when you are focused on the problem. When you become completely immersed in the parts of the solution that are within your control… Frustration goes away.
Step #3: As quickly as you can… Turn the page. Move on. Don’t marinate in your problems.
Too often we get stuck in the emotion of it all. It hurts. It’s discouraging. It’s embarrassing. It’s infuriating. It’s disheartening. It’s frustrating. It’s maddening.
Yes, it probably is, but there is little future in staying in that room and repeating, “If ONLY this and if ONLY that.”
Train your emotional self to move on. Refuse to be stuck. Refuse to be a rudderless victim.
As I mentioned before, we ALL only have so much energy to expend on a specific issue. Don’t waste that energy ruminating about things that are outside of your control or influence.
When we were very young, we realized that we could influence and shape the behaviors of others around us by crying or being very upset.
In truth, that lesson of manipulation is one of the most counterproductive lessons we will ever learn. It only works with a very specific few people. The world at large will typically not respond to our sadness. The world cares less about whether we think things are fair or not. Pouting or fits of anger will typically not be productive.
Conclusion – The formula only works if you do all three:
1. Learn the lesson(s).
2. Adapt. Adjust. Overcome.
3. Quickly turn the page.
Coach Ron Wolforth is the founder of the Texas Baseball Ranch® and has written six books on pitching including the Amazon Best Seller, Pitching with Confidence. Since 2003, The Texas Baseball Ranch® has had over 543 pitchers break the 90mph barrier, 194 have topped 94mph or better, and 129 students have been drafted in the MLB’s June Amateur Draft. Coach Wolforth has consulted with 13 MLB teams, dozens of NCAA programs and has been referred to as “America’s Go-to-Guy on Pitching” and “The Pitching Coaches Pitching Coach”. Coach Wolforth lives in Montgomery, TX with his wife, Jill. They are intimately familiar with youth select, travel baseball and PG events as their son Garrett (now a professional catcher) went through the process. Garrett still holds the PG Underclass All-American Games record for catcher velocity at 89mph which he set in 2014 at the age of 16.
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