Actually, not much. I was just thinking of a common phrase you hear at fast food restaurants where you can “have it your way.” One thing they always ask you is, “Would you like fries with that?” Some softball players seem to carry the “have it your way” mentality onto the softball field. I mean, believe me, I think it’s great that all I have to do is ask and I’ll get a chicken sandwich with no lettuce, but athletics doesn’t always allow you to have things your way. Too many softball players want things “their way” in order to perform at their best. Guess how often they’re going to do well.

Not very often.

Yes, bad weather may make the game more challenging. Yes, bad calls can be frustrating. Yes, having your great hits caught all day long can be discouraging. BUT if you always let these outside circumstances dictate your confidence and how you feel, chances are you’re never going to be in the optimal mindset for maximum performance.

I mean seriously, you’ve trained for too long to let ANYTHING take that away from you, much less something you have no control over. Whether this is only your first season and you’ve only been training for a few weeks or whether you’re an experienced player and you’ve been training for years – trust all that hard work you’ve already done. Don’t let one or two things on game day override all that effort you’ve already invested in yourself and make you feel like you can’t be successful.

It’s true the situation around you or your environment may not be what you want. Maybe the field you play on isn’t the best, or your team isn’t the best, or your equipment isn’t the best, BUT there will always be something and you can’t let that stop you from being your best.

You have full control over what you think and the mindset you having going into competition. Don’t leave it to chance. Stop allowing yourself to use excuses for poor performance. The more you blame other things, the less you’ll be able to make the real adjustments you need to help you get better as a player.

If you’re waiting for everything to be perfect before you can perform your best, it may never happen. Yes, it might be easier if you had the best of everything around you – better teammates, better coaches, better field conditions, better equipment, better umpires, etc, etc, etc but if you keep looking to everything around you to get better or keep looking to what you don’t have as the reason you’re not successful, where do you draw the line? When does it stop? Really, if you’re going to wait for all that to be just right, what else are you going to want? Would you like the sun to be at a certain angle perhaps? How about we wait for the wind to blow one direction while you’re up to bat and the other when your opponent is up to bat? Planetary alignment maybe?

Do you want fries with that?

You get the idea. When does it end? If you keep looking for excuses, you’re never going to reach your full potential. At some point you have to put all the outside BullSh*t aside and take responsibility for your own performance! Too much focus on everything else that could be different doesn’t help YOU get better. Make adjustments where you can – with YOURSELF and stop focusing so much on things you have no control over.