Your PERSPECTIVE On This Time Period Will MAKE or BREAK You [Friday Bullpens Sessions Episode 46]

Hey. Hey. It is Friday. It is time for Friday Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neary. Each week I deconstruct my journey, my struggles through professional baseball to help unpack yours so you can live a life on purpose. I take the lessons I learned in baseball and help you apply them in business and in life. So if you're ready to join me, grab your glove, grab a ball, get ready to take the mo and get ready to bear down, to strike out the limiting beliefs in your life. All right, here we go.

Hey, hey. Welcome back to Friday Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neary and this is episode 46. Today we're going to talk about two words, six feet. And the perspective you have on those words today. Because I bet you it's a lot different than it was not all that long ago. But before we dive into today's episode, I want to give a quick shout out to today's sponsor, the Complete Game Mastermind. Listen, if you're just trying to, you're trying to kick your business and your life into gear right now and you want to do it with an unbelievable mix of coaching community, with some high level business athletes. Yes, I said business athletes. Those are people kicking ass in business today. And you want a ton of accountability to make sure you're taking the right actions each and every week. You're going to want to check the Complete Game Mastermind out now. 2020 class is closed. It's already started. But we are already looking to the future and what the 2021 mastermind and early 2021 is going to look like. So if you want to learn more about the Complete Game Mastermind, I put a link in the comments below. Shoot me a message. We can jump on a call and see if you are a fit and it's a fit for you. Start 2021. All right, here we go. Let's dive into today's episode.

Shift your mindset 6ft.

What thoughts come to your mind when I say those two words? I bet you it's a lot different than your thoughts around those two words just six months ago, right? Six months ago it was nothing more than a measurement. Today could be a loss of touch, loss of feel, loss of human connection. For some, it's even a loss of freedom. And today we're going to talk about your perspective around those two words right now. Do you view it as a hurdle that can't be overcome, A hurdle that's leading to stress, anxiety and depression, or is it an opportunity? We're going to go both ways Here today.

Now, think about other.

Material items in your life that are six feet and the perspective one can have on some other things that are six feet in size. Let's start with a ladder.

Typical ladders are 6ft tall.

Now, for some, a ladder is an opportunity to rise, an opportunity to grow, an opportunity to take a step up so you can fix something on your ceiling. You can see over a fence, whatever it might be. Many view the ladder as an opportunity to take a step up, right? As a help to allowing you to get the job done that you are trying to accomplish again, whether that's fixing a light bulb, fixing the ceiling fan, or climbing over a fence. But for some, a ladder is bad luck. They think about the superstition of walking under a ladder, right? And to them, the ladder means fear, it means taking risk, stay away, right? It's all perspective. What about a yoga mat? Most yoga mats, according to the web, the Internet, most yoga mats are 6ft long. Now, for some, yoga means peace, tranquility, a chance to take care of your body, go inside your mind to grow. Others, like myself, I'm trying yoga, but it also means pain. It means trying to contort myself into positions that I quite frankly, don't enjoy. Again, it's all perspective, isn't it? What about a bullwhip? I'd read online that the average bullwhip or the typical bullwhip is six feet long. Again. Now, for somebody who uses it as part of their job, whether it's a rancher, somebody working out, you know, in the fields, a bullwhip might be very useful. It might be a pertinent part of the job, right? But for others, they see a bullwhip, it could definitely mean pain, torture, cruelty to animals, whatever it might be, right? It's all perspective. How about this one?

A pool, the six foot mark in a pool. Hmm. For many pools, that demarks the beginning of the deep end. And for so many of us, for so long in our lives, we didn't want to go in the deep end, right? Remember when you were a kid and you were playing in the shallow end, you were playing in water that wasn't quite up to your head. If you tiptoed out to that mark where it started to get deeper. What did your parents tell you? Hey honey, stay away, Stay in the shallow end. Don't go in the deep end. Don't go where the water's over your head. So you paused, you stopped your progression, and you made sure you stayed in your safe zone, your comfort zone, the shallow end. Right. Instead of saying, mom, I got it. But you know what? I am just going to take a jump in the deep end. I can remember being a little kid and we would go to the Watertown community pool. Watertown was a community about 10 miles to our west and our town, Oconomowoc, didn't have a pool. So we would go over to the Watertown pool to use to jump in, you know, during the hot summer days. And I can remember when I was a kid there was a rule. If you wanted to go off the diving board, the high dives in the deep end of this pool, you had to prove yourself by swimming across the deep end. And I'll never forget, I was probably, I don't know, four or five years old at the time. I wanted to go off the high dive and I remember the lifeguards looking at me like, really? You kid? No way. And I kept asking, and I kept asking and they said, okay, but in order for you to go off the high dive, you are going to have to prove yourself.

By swimming across the length of the deep end of the pool. Now they're looking at some four to five year old kid thinking there's no way he can do this. Little did they know I'd already been taking swimming lessons for probably two or three years. So I jumped right into that deep end, pushed myself off the wall, swam over the other side of the pool and off I went. Here I was, that four or five year old ready to go off the high dive.

And it's so amazing how so many of us choose instead to stay in the shallow end of the pool. Don't go past that six foot mark because that's when the water gets over your head. That's when it gets dangerous, that's when it gets risky.

The two words, six feet have played an important, albeit probably damaging part of my life. You see, in professional baseball, I always thought that you had to be at least 6ft tall to have a chance to pitch at at the major league level. And I stood 5 foot 9. Yet I had success in high school, I had success in college, and I gave myself the chance to pitch at the professional level.

But it was there. My mindset went south. It was there. I looked at everything as a challenge instead of an opportunity. I looked at my height as a hurdle that I couldn't overcome instead of an opportunity to prove everybody wrong. That thought you had to be 6 foot 6, 6 two 6 three to pitch at the major league level.

But now you look back and think about some of the best pitchers in major league baseball over the last 20 to 30 years. Pedro Martinez, one of the best ever stood 5 foot 11. Billy Wagner, one of the best closers in the late 90s, early 2000s, he was 5 foot 10. And now you've got Marcus Stroman pitching at the major league level right now, who stands 5 foot 8.

Now. The difference between they and me, them and me, simply was nothing more than perspective. I'm sure at some point those guys, I was probably as talented maybe as a Marcus Stroman when I was 19, 20 years old. But it's how you look at those challenges you're presented with. Do you look at them as hurdles or do you look at them as opportunities? I looked at it as a hurdle. So therefore I made excuses. I focused on, oh my God, what will happen if I get released Instead of oh my Lord, what will happen if I prove everybody wrong and I can just stay focused on the things that make me a great pitcher so I can just progress one level at a time. I actually compared myself to everybody else on the mound who was six' two, six' three, six' five. And I looked at them with jealousy. For me, the six foot benchmark was a great wall of China that I could not overcome in my mind. In fact, I'll never forget a conversation I had with my pitching coach, the late Todd Froorth. He was my pitching coach my last two years at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Fabulous man, wonderful coach. I remember as my senior year was wrapping up and there was an opportunity that I could potentially be drafted, he looked at me and he said, listen, you know, if you were 626364, you are probably a top 10 round draft pick this year.

But unfortunately, you know, a pitcher standing 5 foot 9 is not a wanted commodity. So you're probably looking at signing as a free agent, which is exactly what happened. In fact, after long after my professional baseball career was over. Here's a fight side funny story that most actually don't know about me is when I was trying out for the cast of the baseball movie Mr. 3000, yes, I did try out for Mr. 3000. You see, my former coach, Scotty Duffik was in charge of choosing the players who are both going to be main actors in the movie as well as, you know, background athletes sitting in the dugouts and on the field. He called up a lot of the former UWM players, said, hey guys, come try out. If you, if you recall, they filmed the movie at Miller park in Milwaukee. So here I was probably what 22, 23, 24 years old. Heck, what the heck? I'll go try out. But.

The main reason I got cut from casting trying out as a pitcher for this movie was my height.

They wanted the guys standing 626364 as the actors who are going to portray pitchers in the movie, Mr. 3000. So I got cut purely due to my height. So not only did I use my height as an inhibitor, as a challenge, as a wall that prevented me from advancing in professional baseball, that same height disadvantage actually got me cut from trying out for a baseball movie. Now, I ended up being a double or a backdrop actor in the movie. But point being is, when it came to baseball, I saw my height as yet another challenge, whether it was on the field or in Hollywood.

So let's fast forward to today. Let's fast forward to what these two words mean today. Six feet. As I started this podcast, you are either looking at these two words as a hurdle or as an operation. Opportunity. You're either going to look back at this period in history.

As a time when you told everybody how all of this wonderful momentum you had going in your life and your business came to a screeching halt because it was stopped by this pandemic, or you're going to look back at this time and tell people how it was the start of the rest of your life. Hurdle or opportunity? Listen, in a world that is run by uncertainty right now, there is one thing that is certain, and that's we're never going back to the way it was. So are you gonna sit here and stew how your sales were on track to crush any record you had before and now you're way behind? Are you going to look back at how your business was on a 10, 20% growth trajectory each and every year for the last five years, but this year it came to a screeching halt?

Are you going to talk about how everything in your life, your relationships, your friendships were great until this pandemic hit?

Were you going to use this as a chance.

To start with a clean slate? Are you going to use this as a chance to reinvent yourself? Are you going to use this as a chance to take control of your future right now? Hurdle or opportunity?

So let's think about that. Let's talk about how you can use this as a chance to use this time in history as a start to something magical, as a start to the rest of your life.

What are some easy steps you can start taking right now to ensure that one year, three years, five years from now, you look Back at this period of time as something that was completely unexpected, something that knocked you off track, but something that was also the start of a magical run that you are now on living the life you want. And that's step one. The first thing you need to do right now if you want to reinvent yourself, if you want to make this the start of the rest of your life, is get crystal clear about what you want your life to look like.

What kind of job do you have or do you want? What kind of business do you want? What kind of relationship with your wife, your girlfriend do you want? If you don't have anybody in your life, who do you want to be dating? Who do you want to be married to? What kind of house do you want to live in? How much money do you want to be making? Get crystal clear about exactly what it is you want. And quite frankly, if that entails a job that doesn't include the job you're currently in or the career you're currently in, now's the time to make a chance or make a change. Because when you feel like you are losing everything, it's actually the time when you've got nothing to lose, my friends.

So get crystal clear about what it is you want right now. Take the time and journal this out.

Amy just gave me this task myself. She said, set your timer on your phone to 15 minutes. And I want you to write every way you can think possible to scale your business right now. Give yourself 15 minutes. Puke it out of your mouth, out through your hand, through a pen and on a piece of paper. I'm going to tell you to do the same thing. Set the timer on your cell phone to 15 minutes. Take 15 minutes to Journal exactly what you want your life to look like one year, three years, five years from now, I don't care. But get crystal clear about what it is you want. That's step one.

Step two.

Stop living the when I life and just be happy now. Step into the person you must become to live this ideal life. You've drawn out so many of us get trapped in this. I'll be happy when I earn that kind of income. I'll be happy when I have that house of my dreams or I'm driving that car or I'm married or we have kids. Why not just be happy now? Listen. You are talking or listening to a recovering When Iaholic. I used to be so guilty at that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm going to be happy when I get that promotion or when I earn that New account. When I get the sale, when I make the money I want, when I hit my goals, I'll be happy. Then.

Guess what happened? That moment never came. You need to learn how to start being happy right now. Again. What do you have to lose when you feel like you're losing everything is the time when you've got nothing to lose. Be happy now. So get crystal clear about what it is you want. The life, the business you want, the relationships you want. Journal it out and then step into it. Even if you don't have it today, step into that person you need to become. Listen to what I just said there. Step into the person you need to become.

You're not going to change when you have it. You need to change right now. So be happy right now. And then step number three.

Sounds easy, but I know it's difficult to show up every day.

Once you know what it is, you are crystal clear about what you want. When you step into being happy now, then you have to make it a daily practice. I said this in multiple episodes. Make consistency your superpower. Show up every day. Don't take days off. Now. What I mean by don't take days off is every day you should be living life to its fullest. Whether it's trying to crank out business, trying to have success in business, or if it's just having fun with your friends, working out, going on vacation. Live life to the fullest. Show up every day. And remember, most importantly, this is a long game.

You're not going to have everything you want next week. Heck, you're not going to have everything you want next year or three years from now. And I don't care if you're 22 years old right now, 32, 52, or 62, you have a long life left. This is a long game. Do not expect immediate results.

So get crystal clear about what it is you want right now. Take this moment in history as a time to pause and reflect and start writing out your future. What is it you want to have? What kind of life, what kind of business? And then step into that person that you need to become. Who is desired or has the opportunity or worthy of receiving all of that magic in your life. And then just show up every day, be consistent and be patient, knowing it's a long game. Because whether we have to stand 6ft apart or you're not 6ft tall, the future is in your hands. Yes, I know. There. It feels like a lot is out of our control right now and there's a lot of uncertainty.

But again.

The One thing that is certain is there's no going back. You have to take control of your future. And it starts by knowing what you want. It starts by stepping into that person who's worthy of obtaining that. And it ends with showing up every day and just being so damn consistent that the universe can't help but give it what you want. You go out and do that, my friend, life's going to get a lot clearer and shit's going to get a lot clearer. So put a smile on your face. Don't get so frustrated with all the noise that's going around you right now. And just take control of your emotions, take control of your thoughts, and take control of your future. Remember, we have to stand six feet apart right now, but it's all perspective. Is it a hurdle or is an opportunity? And I hope you view it as an opportunity because you're going to look back one year, three years, five years from now and be pretty damn happy you did. And you know what happens when confidence and clarity collide? Action happens. Go make it happen today. Hey, thank you for taking the time to listen to this Friday Bullpen session. If you are enjoying these episodes, please do me a favor, go over to Apple, subscribe, give it a five star rating. And if you know of anybody in your life, whether it's in your family, personal life, your friends, business colleagues that you think would find benefit in listening to these episodes as well, do me a favor, please share the Bullpen sessions with them. I'd be extremely grateful if you did and again, go out and make it happen today. Thank you.

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