My earliest memory of sports is playing “Boys Baseball”. I am from a small town in Ohio, and if you were a girl and you wanted to do sports with other girls, you were simply out of luck. We had no organized sports for girls until I was in Sixth grade, and a softball league was started. No soccer at all. So, when I was young and in Elementary school, I played baseball with the boys, which was one of the only organized sports for them. We had only 3 girls in the league, and we were all on different teams (I would always jokingly say that this was to “spread out the talent”.) I knew how to hit the ball well and I was left-handed, so they had to figure out where to play me in the outfield, based on where a batted ball was least likely to land.
One season, when I was sweating it out in Right Field, only 3 balls came to me (all season), and I dropped the first two. However, for that third ball, I closed my eyes, extended my arm, and stretched out my glove. I managed to squeeze my glove tight and catch that third hit. For one glorious shining moment, I saved the day, and it was awesome!
We discovered later that I needed glasses and I probably got lucky on that third try. I finally got those glasses in Sixth grade (the start of the Softball League) when the Doctor said: “You’ve missed a lot of games, young Lady.” I was happy to be on the team, included with the boys, able to play some of the time, and contribute as part of a group effort doing something bigger than myself. You can’t be on a baseball team of 1…
I was always surprised at why more girls did not show up to play baseball. I made sure to give my best effort and work to support the team, and what I learned was that the boys did not seem to mind a girl on the team if everyone was treated fairly and with respect. I would like to thank my coaches and my teammates! Good times!
know who they have the potential to be.
The challenge is seeing that process through.
Self-development is an art.
It takes time. It requires patience. It asks you to step outside your comfort zone. It is challenging — and that’s the point.
However, the biggest challenge when it comes to self-development is the process itself. People really struggle with the path and all its twists and turns, much more than they do any single obstacle.
But should you learn how to walk that path of self-development, you will learn some tried truths to live by:
1. Any failure can be reframed as a lesson.
Self-development is a mindset.
To one person, a project going poorly or a relationship ending means they failed. To someone else, it is nothing more than another lesson on the path.
By reframing to see the lesson instead of the mistake, you will ultimately learn more and move on to what’s next faster.
