FFN 057： Strikeout Swinging
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
201.37476
Summary
In this episode of Friday Field Notes, Ryan talks about the importance of swinging at strikes and why you should never stop trying to swing at them. He also talks about how important it is to never miss an opportunity to strike out.
Transcript
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong. This is your life. This is
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who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan
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Mickler, and I am the host and the founder of the podcast you are listening to right now,
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The Order of Men. You just stumbled upon, or maybe you've been listening to for a while now,
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the absolute best podcast available for men today. We're bringing you the best guests the world has
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to offer. We're extracting their wisdom. We're extracting their life lessons, and we're delivering
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them straight to you. I want to thank you for listening in each week. This week, guys, was a
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huge week for the podcast, probably because we just interviewed Chris Tonto-Peranto about his
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experience in the Benghazi attack and, of course, his new book, The Ranger Way. So, if you haven't
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listened to that one yet, you now know what you're going to do after you listen to me ramble for the
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next couple of minutes about a subject I think all of us could probably adhere to just a little bit
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more in our lives, and I'm going to get into that here in a minute, but I just wanted to give you
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really quickly two resources you need to know about, of course, before we go any further. First,
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and you've heard this before, but make sure you join our Facebook group, facebook.com slash groups
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slash order of man. You're going to join the thousands of conversations we're having over
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there inside of Facebook with over 30,000 men now. Second, after you listen to this podcast and after
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you listen to my interview with Chris Peranto, head to order of man.com slash iron council and learn a
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little bit more about our one of a kind, our exclusive brotherhood. We are officially 280 strong now,
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and we are doing everything required for you to have a deeper relationship with your wife or lose
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the extra pounds that you've been fighting with for years or growing a business, building your bank
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account. Otherwise, just becoming the men I know all of us are called to be. Again, you can do that
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at order of man.com slash iron council. All right, guys, enough of that. Let's talk about the subject of
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today's Friday field notes, striking out swinging. We just wrapped up another baseball season here in
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Southern Utah and overall is a pretty great season. I just coached my two oldest boys teams and both
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teams are good. Both teams are strong. They did a lot of right things this year. They learned a ton.
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I learned a ton, but there is one thing I really had to work on with them. And that is of never
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striking out looking. I can understand a strikeout. It happens to everybody. It happens to the best
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players in the world. But one of the things that is so difficult for me to see an experience
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is when an opposing pitcher throws a strike and my team just stands there and looks at it.
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They don't even make an attempt to swing at the ball. It is infuriating. They might get out,
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but if they don't swing at strikes, they're guaranteed to. And as I was working on the
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patience that is required to coach eight and nine-year-old boys, it got me thinking how often
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I've watched opportunities pass me by because I'm unprepared or I'm caught like a deer in the
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headlights. How often have you passed up opportunities? How often do we fail to miss
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what could have been a chance for us to do something great in our lives if only we were
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in the position mentally, physically to actually take a swing? And it's got me thinking about
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why we do this and more importantly, how, how we can avoid doing it in the future. So let's
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talk about why we look when we should be swinging. First, I think it comes down to a lack of
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preparation. Professional baseball players spend their entire lives focusing on the mechanics
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of swinging. The best players actually even focus on the mechanics of pitching so they can better
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understand the windup of a pitcher, the arm movement, the hand, the release, the spin of the
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ball, so much more so that they can give themselves that much better of a chance. But what do we do in
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our daily lives? We don't prepare like that. We do everything the exact same way we've always done.
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We never look for efficiencies because we're too stuck in our ways. We don't look for opportunities
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to improve or take it on a new project because it's not our responsibility. So for example, when
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that job promotion becomes available at work, we aren't even considered. We're not even considered
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for it because we haven't been doing the work required to perform in that new position. Every
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single moment, every single conversation, every single encounter or interaction is an opportunity
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to prepare for what is coming down the road. And the second component of this is fear. I mean,
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we are so afraid of looking ridiculous that we won't even put ourselves in the ballgame.
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Look, I get it. Baseball as is life is tough. It's a hard sport. It's scary. People are going to have
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their eyes on you. They're going to be watching you, especially as you're trying to become a new man,
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the man that you are meant to be. But what we fail to realize is that when we try to keep
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from sabotaging ourselves and that's what we're trying to do, we don't want to look foolish.
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We don't want to sabotage ourselves. We actually end up sabotaging ourselves. If you swing, you might
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miss. But if you don't, you're guaranteed to. So if you haven't done this already, I would encourage
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you to go read Teddy Roosevelt's speech, The Man in the Arena. It's going to tell you everything
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that you need to know. All right. So lack of preparation and fear keep us from swinging. So
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what is it that we need to do in order to be in the position and actually have the desire
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to swing in the future? First and foremost, you've got to understand the rules of the game
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you're playing. And I know a lot of people are going to say that life isn't a game. I
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know it's not a game, but there are rules to this experience we call life. Some of those
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rules are written. Most of them are unwritten. Imagine, for example, if you tried investing
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without knowing what interest was or even how the stock market worked to some small degree,
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you're going to get blindsided with fees and losses. And it's actually going to keep you
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from doing it again. It's going to keep you from trying or swinging again. You might even
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attempt to blame the loss you experienced on somebody else, your advisor or the president
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or the economy. And while I can see that there might be some validity to that, there wasn't
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anything keeping you from learning the rules. In fact, you're probably listening to this podcast
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on a device that gives you access to a lifetime or more of information. Our friend, Google,
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and outside of Google, it is possible and highly recommended that you consider hiring a coach to
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help you learn the rules and swing when it's appropriate. I have a business coach. I have
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multiple fitness coaches. At one point I had a life coach. Every one of these coaches taught me
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something about some element of life and helped me understand the game a bit more. So I knew when to
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swing and I knew when not to our brotherhood, the iron council. I mentioned it earlier. This is a
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prime example of this. I have individual coaching clients. All of these men are attempting to learn
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something they don't already know and shorten that learning curve of doing it. But the other side of
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this, and we have to be aware of that, is that there are those who would like to see you fail.
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When you're standing in the batter's box, the catcher might be whispering little things in your
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ear. You're probably hearing the crowd behind you. Some of them are here to cheer you on and others are
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here to revel in your failure. And you have to have the ability to discern who is helping you,
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who is on your side and who isn't. They're telling you when to swing, when it's a ball,
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when it's a strike. But if you stop and think about it, they have no idea. Your mother, however noble
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her intentions might be, has never stood in the batter's box. She might be telling you things that
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will keep you safe and that's her job, but she isn't telling you things that are going to help
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you win. That is your coach's job. And outside of that, guys, it's practice. The only thing that
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it's going to help you to recognize when to swing and when not to is to look at a boatload of pitches.
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There's nothing that can replicate real world implementation of the things you and your coach
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have been learning. There might be a couple boys this year, in fact, who give up on baseball
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because they didn't do it as well as they would have liked. But the ones that stick around,
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the ones that get the most pitches and the most looks and the most at-bats are the ones who will
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learn most and find a way to grow and thrive. Keep taking the at-bats. Keep learning on your own.
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Keep hiring coaches. But most importantly, keep swinging. Never strike out looking. So if you want
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to learn more about how to succeed with your finances and your business, your health,
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your relationships, I want to work with you. And we can do that in one of two ways. The Iron
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Council, which again is our exclusive band of brothers. These guys are dedicated. They're
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ambitious. They want to succeed. They want you to succeed. And we've built a solid framework,
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including something we just launched, which is a 30-day quick start guide to get you off to the
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races fast. So you can check out what we're doing at orderaman.com slash Iron Council. Outside of that,
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if you're interested in one-on-one coaching, you can shoot me an email at Ryan at orderaman.com.
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I'll ask you some powerful questions. We'll get you some clarity and see how and if I can
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even help. Gentlemen, I will look forward to talking to you next week. But until then,
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take action, strike out swinging, and become the man you are meant to be.
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Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast. If you're ready to take charge of your
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life and be more of the man you were meant to be, we invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.