All About Fastpitch Softball Blog

One thing that helps people continue moving forward to accomplish their big goals is to celebrate small victories along the way.  Without taking the time to celebrate those small accomplishments,
it can be easy to get discouraged, lose motivation, and give up on your goals.

That’s one of the main reasons the “Shameless Brags” group was created at Fastpitch World: to give you a place to celebrate and share your small (or big) victories and motivate you to keep pushing forward toward your ultimate goals.

Plus, I always find it motivating to read success stories from others in the game.

So…have you or your team accomplished something cool this season?

It doesn’t have to be big – it can be something small (1st homerun even). If so, please come and share your story! “Shameless Brags” was created specifically for sharing positive stories so that
others can celebrate with you and get inspired as well.

Or, if you don’t have anything to write, maybe you’ll find a little inspiration in the stories there.

If you haven’t been to Fastpitch World yet, you do need to sign up for an account before you can post, but it doesn’t cost a thing and only takes a few minutes.

Can’t wait to read your success story there!

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Don’t have any goals set yet? Elite members have 24/7 access to our Goal Setting Bootcamp which walks you through the questions and process you need to in order to set powerful
effective goals for your future.   Join our Elite Members Today

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Technorati Tags: Goal Setting, Motivation

So last week, I was at the University of Hawaii watching my daughters (and a number of other young softball players) go through the summer softball camp.

There was something cute and very interesting I saw happen on the very first day.

Five players were just arriving at a hitting station where they were going to be hitting into a net. The players were about 8-9 years old so, to make things fun, the coach running the drill asked, “Who wants to go first?”

Guess what happened?

Four of the players immediately raised their hands.

That left one player who didn’t raise her hand.

So which one of the four hand-raising players did the coach pick?

NONE

The player that got to go first in this drill was the “other one”-the one that didn’t raise her hand. Why?

Because when the coach asked the question and all the other girls stood there and raised their hand, this player stepped right into the drill and got ready to hit. She didn’t bother to raise her hand to “say” she wanted to go first. She took action and went first.

There are times, when you KNOW what you want, that it’s better to shut your mouth, stop talking about it, and just do it!

So are you just talking about what you want to do and what you want to accomplish?

Or are you out there DOING what you want to do?

This week, make the choice to start DOING. Every day, do something to get you closer to your goals. Don’t have goals? Time to set some! Need help? I can walk you through it step by step right here.

Technorati Tags: Goal Setting, softball clinic, youth sports

One of the things that always baffles me is that people try to set goals without ever thinking about their vision. In other words, they do goal setting, but the never think about what they ultimately want, what their dream is.

It’s very difficult to achieve that BIG thing and set goals to help you get there when you have no idea what it is.

So, right now I’m going to share an example of how you can set more effective goals and improve your game.

Let’s not think about a huge thing right now, let’s just focus on ONE practice day.

How often do you think about what you want out of practice? You probably attend practice with the hopes of improving your game or getting better right? But what would you ultimately like practice to be like?

Think about that for a second.

Maybe one of the things you want is to improve your game at least a little each day?

Maybe you want to enjoy yourself and have some fun?

Whatever it is, ask yourself if those things are happening on a daily basis.

If not, why not?

Maybe your always rushing to practice so you’re already starting of full of anxiety instead of starting practice off in a positive way.

Maybe you don’t really see yourself improving as much as you’d like.

The idea is to:

1. Think about what you really want out of practice
2. Figure out some reasons why that’s not happening regularly
3. Then listing a few things you could do to make it happen

Maybe you really enjoy socializing with your teammates, but your always getting to practice in the nick of time, so you don’t really get that opportunity.

One thing you can decide to do is: make sure you get ready for practice early and make it a point to arrive at the field at least 15 minutes before start time. That way you can take your time. You don’t need to rush. You don’t need to feel pressured right off the bat. You can relax, find a great spot to put your bag in, and chit chat with your friends for a bit before you have to get to your training.

Wouldn’t that make your practice experience better? Wouldn’t you enjoy it more than always having to rush in, run to the dugout with your equipment bag, throw it in any remaining available spot, hurry to get your shoes on, scramble to find your glove, and hustle out to the field because everyone else is already ready to go?

Which way would you rather start practice? Which way do you usually start practice?

Is this a change you can make?

Another scenario: Maybe one of the reasons you go to practice is to get better, but somehow you’re not sure if it’s working. Try make it a point to learn one new thing each day.

• Listen closely each day to what your coaches have to say (instead of chatting with your friends on the field)
• Observe your teammates to see if you can learn from them (instead of chatting in the back of the line when it’s not your turn)
• At the end of the practice review and see if you learned anything new

If you look back and can name something you learned, you will see that you did accomplish something during practice and will feel better about your practice session. You’ll also be more motivated to get out there again the next day and take another step. Since you’re making it a point to learn something new, you’ll probably get more out of practice because you’re paying more attention and looking for ways to get better rather than just relying on your coaches to make you better. You will start to see that you are improving and raising your game by attending practice each day.

Have you thought of what you’d like out of practice or what you’d like your practice to be like?

Give it a try.

• Think about what you’d ultimately want your practices to be like
• Identify a few reasons why it’s not like that
• Then decide on a few things you can do differently to make it better

Try it today and let me know how it goes.

These are the types of exercises you’ll go through in the Goal Setting Acceleration Bootcamp – just on a larger scale and with a bit more detail.

Take the challenge of answering soul searching questions to get down to the meat of practical, action steps you can take to pump up your performance.

Sound like fun? You know I’m all about fun and I think you’ll enjoy the process of going through to activities in the goal setting bootcamp. Enjoy the game more and make bigger gains.

Start today. Try the stuff in this blog post, then go over to the GSA page and sign up to get Part 1 of the Bootcamp for FREE.

Technorati Tags: Goal Setting