Prep Baseball Report Minnesota is excited to team up with- The Mindstrong Project. Our goal in this endeavor is to continue to provide the most up-to-date pertinent information and resources to the baseball community in the state of Minnesota.

Periodically, The Mindstrong Project will be providing content for the Prep Baseball Report Minnesota website; as they continue to work to build human performance through education while building an awareness of how the mind and body work together to sustain a consistent confident approach to game performance.

In this month's installment; The MindStrong Project talks about PULLING THE WEEDS......

Hey everybody,

I hope by the time you are reading this that some sense of relief has come.  Those of us from Minnesota have been struck by not just one, but two crises.  The first being the crisis that the whole world has handled for the past 2 months: COVID-19.  The second crisis being the unjust death of George Floyd and the reverberations that have been felt around the country.  Through both of these crises we have seen the best and worst of people.  We have seen the best and worst of humanity.  We have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly.  As a human performance coach, it has allowed me to question many of life’s realities.  It has challenged my curiosities of what it means to live a good life. 

To try and fully understand such a complex idea is no small task.  We’ve been on the quest for centuries to find the recipe for a fulfilling life, yet so many still miss the mark.  To be clear, I miss the mark daily.  This is not a finger-pointing article.  However, studying human behavior is what I have a passion for and have dedicated my career to.  Being an observer of human behavior for a living is equally rewarding and exhausting.  Why?  The reward comes from repeatedly seeing the triumph in our human spirit after tragedy, and from observing families and friends sharing love and growth together. The exhaustion comes from repeatedly seeing the human ego sabotage human decency or fracture relationships, and from seeing fear cripple the confidence or joy that should be the essence of our human experience. 

Pulling the Weeds

In order to grasp the full picture, it feels useful to first examine what behaviors do not fulfill us.  If we can understand what the opposite of fulfillment is, then the path to fulfillment comes a bit more clear.  By no means is this list comprehensive, but it includes a vast array of what it looks like when insecurities and disillusioned thought patterns make an appearance.

Stagnant
Unaccountable
Angry
Pessimistic
Fixed mindset/stubborn
Arrogant
Fragile
Physically unhealthy
Insecure
Unreliable
Manipulative
Controlling
Irritable
Rude
Obnoxious
Self-absorbed
Dishonest
Hypersensitive
Irrational
Don’t take ownership
Afraid of commitment
Bland
Don’t trust self
Dream but don’t do anything
Complain
Too idealistic/perfect
Jealous
Selfish
Egocentric
Lazy
Scared
Insensitive
Emotionally closed off
Skeptical
Seeks conflict
Frantic
Mentally weak/give up easily
Immoral/inhumane
Obsessive
Lack direction
People-pleaser
Greedy
Destructive
Rigid 

Undoubtedly, there are a more traits or behaviors not mentioned on this list.  However, all of these qualities are things we tend to get annoyed with others for.  Why?  Because they tend to detract from fulfillment.  They tend to go against the grain our zest for life.  Just to be clear, nobody is perfect.  We all, at times, may exhibit any of these qualities.  Nonetheless, moderation prevails.  We can overcome these qualities fairly easily if we exhibit many other fulfilling thoughts and behaviors that outweigh the negativity.  Put differently, we only have so much time and energy to exert.  Think of your resources as a bottle of water.  You have two glasses to pour the water into; the fulfilling glass and the unfulfilling glass.  If we pour too much water into the unfulfilling glass, we don’t have enough left for the positive glass.  Furthermore, whichever glass we pour the water into becomes our reality.  The glass we pour into becomes the source of energy on which we draw from.  This is the whole idea of perception becoming reality.  What we think, we become.

Planting the Seeds

Now that we’ve illuminated the qualities and behaviors that we should limit, let’s look at the qualities and behaviors we should try exuding more often.  To be clear, I’m not perfect.  Nobody has it all figured out.  Yet, we are able to look at the trends of people who are fulfilled.  We are able to paint a broad picture of what it’s like to live a fulfilling life.  I’m currently writing a book on the subject and here is the recipe I’ve come up with so far:

To be fulfilled in life, it helps to:

1. Be able to enjoy things.  Personal success, the success of others, simple pleasures, and experiences.  Let’s not kid ourselves… life was meant to be enjoyed.
2. Leave an impact.  Humans love to feel important.  There is no more fulfilling way to feel important than to live with the purpose of making the world a better place. 
3. Have a strong moral compass.  In a broad sense, high standards for yourself and others.  More importantly, accountability to those standards.
4. Continually seek growth.  When we become stagnant, we start to decay.  Decay smells bad.
5. Be adaptable.  Rigidity creates tension and fragility.  We have to be able to move dynamically and “adjust to the off-speed pitch” in order to overcome challenges. 

Once again, it’s important to note that the recipe for a fulfilling life may differ from person to person.  However, these 5 core pillars seem to be universally fulfilling.  From these 5 core pillars flows an immeasurable amount of other good qualities such as love, discipline, humility, joy, honor, courage, gratitude, and hope – among others.  We could have a “chicken or the egg” discussion regarding each of these pillars; even so, the 5 core pillars are designed around action.  It’s been said before that it is harder to think our way into action than it is to act our way into thinking.  The two certainly feed off one another, but action is usually easier to implement.  Thinking tends to get complicated and/or cloud our vision.  Thinking can lead to being overwhelmed; it begs questions we don’t have answers to.  Alas, one of my favorite anonymous quotes that pulled me out of the biggest rut of my life: “Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.”  To that affect, no one ever lived a fulfilling life by being paralyzed with indecision.  Life is not about being perfect.  Life is meant to be lived, not just thought about.  We give it our best shot, we learn from our mistakes, and we try it again.  Within that framework is so much room to enjoy the ride, live our purpose, stick to our morals, grow the best version of ourselves, and roll with the punches. 

As we find ourselves chugging along in our day-to-day lives, we can forget to pick our head up and look at the big picture.  Hopefully, these senseless tragedies over the past couple of months have allowed us the capacity to examine our lives.  I’ll be darned if the world isn’t a better place after all of this adversity.  Why?  Because each adversity is an opportunity to grow.

My friends, let’s grow.

The Mindstrong Project helps athletes, teams, and organizations in leveling up performance in multiple avenues.  Our experience with youth athletes all the way up to professional athletes in the MLB, NHL, and NFL, as well as corporate America have continually refined our work to provide mentorship, education, and training in tactical, technical, biological, and psychological aspects of sport.  Schedule a call today:

Email: [email protected]

Austin Hanson: (218) 770-4907

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