There’s something comforting to me about watching baseball, whether live or on TV. The slower pace slowly relaxes you, yet the big moment is always a single swing of the bat away.
I read a great piece on Psychology Today about the mental health lessons of baseball. It suggests that the high rate of failure is helpful, noting that being a career .300 hitter in baseball is a Hall of Famer: “This means that the best of the best in the sport will fail 70 percent of the time. This is why baseball, more than any other sport, has failure built into it.”
No one likes failure, but it is a part of life, and often a building block for future success.
So when I watch one of my Blue Jays swing and miss, I guess I can feel better about the project that went awry, the post that didn’t quite land write, or the decision government made that I disagree with.
“For us to achieve what we want to achieve, failure is a must, so the sooner we become okay with it, the better… If we’re not failing, we’re not working on hard enough problems.”
Here’s to failing upward!
Each week, ICBA’s Jordan Bateman reflects on what we’ve learned as we participate in ICBA’s Workplace Wellness Program. ICBA’s Workplace Wellness Program is helping more than 100 companies and more than 10,000 construction professionals better understand mental health. This program is free for all ICBA members – check out icba.ca/wellness for details.
