Fans of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts will know that Linus often consoled Charlie Brown after a team loss. It didn’t matter the sport – baseball, football, or hockey – Charlie Brown almost always lost.
I remember reading one Peanuts comic strip in which Linus said, after yet another loss, “Sports are important for us, Charlie Brown.” Reassuring his friend, Linus said that sports teach the benefits of practice, teamwork, and good sportsmanship.
When I read that strip, I was in my early 20s and just a few years removed from high school athletics. I smiled because Linus’ words rang true. The lessons I learned from team sports were already playing a big part in my career and life in general.
Perhaps the most valuable lesson athletics taught me was that you may lose more than you win. It’s how you deal with losing that matters.
When I was a kid, I was a fairly talented baseball player, but I often held myself to an impossible standard. Every strike out and every error seemed like the end of the world. I found it difficult to shake this feeling.
It was after one particularly difficult game that my dad sat me down for a heart-to-heart. He told me that even the best baseball players – the ones that end up in the Hall of Fame – only get three hits out of ten. Which means that the batter, in a sense, “fails” the other seven times at bat. In fact, he may strike out as often as he gets a hit. Moreover, a batter may undergo long stretches of failure, like batting slumps. What separates the Hall of Famer from the average player is how he deals with those challenging times.
Great players – successful people – have short memories.
An emotionally strong player will conduct an honest self-evaluation, listen to the constructive feedback of his coaches and teammates, and then work hard to remedy whatever is physically or mentally hindering him. He will persist in spite of repeated setbacks. When he finally breaks through, he will have gained the immeasurable value of both physical and mental toughness.
Persistence requires strength and the force of will. Its most important ingredient, however, is often overlooked: acceptance. We must go easy on ourselves. Great players – successful people – have short memories in that respect. They accept failure as temporary and not as a reflection of who they are. They know that, with time, failure is an opportunity to learn and grow.
My dad ended our discussion by telling me that attitude is just as important as talent and effort. For every Hall of Fame athlete, he said, there are ten who had just as much talent, but those players fell short because they were consumed by negative attitudes. Their memories were long, and they were too hard on themselves.
Forty years later, I realize that the same lessons apply to any profession or, really, to anything in life. The author will not always fill the page. The doctor will not always diagnose her patient correctly. The artist will not always create a masterpiece. But we can all attain success if we persist.
Peanuts is still around, and Charlie Brown is still losing. But he is still playing. He is persisting. And with Linus’ help, he’s learning to go easier on himself.
Comments