Performing at your best

What does it take for you to be able to perform at your best? Are you someone who needs everything to be just right, or are you someone you can play with the cards you were dealt?

I like to think of myself as a flexible and adaptable person, someone who has a growth mindset and is willing to take risks, but in reality I am a lot more rigid than I would like. Sure, I can find creative ways to work in nontraditional places, and I’m not afraid to do work that is outside of my immediate scope of responsibility, but when it comes to last-minute changes and interruptions that throw me off my routine or plan, I am not as nimble as I seem.

This week, I got the chance to watch as a group of 12U boys that had to literally play in much less than ideal conditions. In Atlanta, the weather can be unpredictable this time of year, but my son and his baseball team never imagined they would be playing a game in 35° weather...that’s exactly what happened on Monday night. Their game was at 7:15 PM, and before we hit the middle of the first inning, the sun had set and the temperature had dropped from the mid 40s to the mid 30s. Never once did any of the boys complain. As the wind cut through the ball park, and those of us on the bleachers moaned and growned about how cold we were, the boys played on. I watched the pitcher try to keep his hands warm between pitches, I watched the outfielders bounce around in order to keep their body temperature up, and I watched as each child shook their hands in response to the sting of the bat after making solid contact with the ball.

I think youth sports are important for a lot of reasons, but in that moment, it was much a learning opportunity for me as it was for them. As I sat there frigidly complaining, I reflected on their (and my) ability to persevere, my own emotional response to working in frustrating conditions, and how success is often about more what it takes to get the work done than about the work itself.