Doing the Little Things

Doing the little things in life has become a big part of my life lately. My friend, Ben Stevenson, wrote a blog recently on doing the little things. In his blog he had a little story about Coach "Bear" Bryant:
"One day during practice, a visitor observed Coach (Paul "Bear") Bryant doing something that aroused his curiosity. From time to time during practice, the coach would reach into his pocket, pull out a crumbled little piece of paper, read it, and then put it back in his pocket. The visitor watched him do this several times during practice, and finally mustered up the courage to ask the coach what was written on the paper. Coach Bryant simply smiled, pulled out the paper, and let the visitor read it himself. It said: It's the itty bitty, teeny tiny things that get you beat."- An excerpt from the book "Real Dream Teams" by Bob Fisher and Bo Thomas.
In sports, the little things can be the difference between a sub par year and a championship season. In baseball, taking those five extra swings every day and taking those ten extra ground balls can be the difference between a good player and a great player. In life, doing the little things can also change our lives tremendously. As an aspiring coach, I have to do the little things every day to one day become a great coach. I have to study the game, learn from every coach I come in contact with and ask different coaches questions about how they do things.
Coach Lane (coach of the University of North Alabama from 1985-2007) once told me that the way he learned the game of baseball was by finding the best coaches in each thing he wanted to learn about and asking them drills and other things they do to help their players. Now Coach Lane is one of the top coaches in wins in Division II baseball history.
"If you take care of the little things, you never have one big thing to worry about." - Cal Ripken Jr.--from his book "Get in the Game."

Learning from Mistakes

“The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake - you can't learn anything from being perfect
When climbing mountains, you are going to trip and fall, slip and make many other mistakes. But, the people that learn from those mistakes will climb the highest mountain. Those who don't will fail at the most crucial part of the mountain. I have learned in life that I make a lot of mistakes. Some of them happen over and over again and some of them, I learn from and never make again. In life and in sports, people make mistakes. Michael Jordan has missed the winning shot before, Tiger has missed the winning putt. Michael Phelps smoked pot. There are many different mistakes that have been made by so many great people. But, the reason Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods have made many of those shot is because they learned from the times they missed. They had that drive to make them work hard enough to not make the same mistake they did twice. Baseball is the perfect example of learning from your mistakes. When a great hitter gets fooled on a strike out pitch, they go back to the dugout, think about what they could have done better, what pitch that was and many other things. Then, they go out and execute. Bad hitting strike out on the same pitches over and over and they never learn, so they never become good hitters or very successful. That also goes for regular every day life. We have to learn from our mistakes. I think that it is an important part of being an adult. Learning from your mistakes can also make you very successful. So I challenge you, the next mistake you make, learn from it. Do not make the same mistake twice.

Team Hoyt

This is a little inspirational video I wanted to post while I was on the road. Dick Hoyt, a 66 year old father has sacrificed his life for his 44 year old son Rick who has cerebral palsy. He pushed his body to the limit in marathons, triathlons and even the Iron Man competition so that his son could enjoy some of the greater things in life. If you have not heard about this story, I urge you to look it up and find out more. Truly inspirational.

Focus While Climbing a Mountain

I wanted to start off my blog with a quote that pretty much explains the title of my blog. With a little focus, any mountain in your life can be conquered.

"The higher you go on a mountain, the more dangerous it gets. The pressure on you to finish is greater, there is little oxygen and the conditions can wipe you out. You have to be even more focused as you climb a mountain. If you lose your focus for even a second, it can cost you. Even focusing on the summit and not focusing on the next step can be devastating."

Lou Kasischke (Survivor of the worst disaster in Mount Everest History)