If you’re like me, you beat yourself up for every mid-step, mistake you make, big or small. I played softball yesterday and made a ton of good plays, ran for first to be safe like a jet, scored at home plate twice by out running the throw, but also was thrown out once at second base, bobbled a ground ball and didn’t get the runner. I remember the mistakes more than the good stuff.
The same goes for my golf game. I hit the ball straight most of the time, but a lot of the time I don’t hit it very far, or get “air” on it. The ball rolls down the fairway pretty far at least and is competitive. But, if I’m swinging over water I choke. If I swing out of a bunker or high grass, I chip like a champ. My tee shot is terrible, my short game is awesome. I love chipping and putting. I practice driving on the range into the water, and I hit equally good and bad shots. Putting and chipping, I’d say I do what I want to do and am successful 90% of the time.
On the driving range
What do I remember most? The misses. It’s time to change that. Especially after all my lofty (pun intended) plans in January. They weren’t resolutions, they were plans.
I also wanted to write everyday. I’ve written some, so I’ve attained that. But, I haven’t written everyday and posted it like I planned to.
I wanted to improve my running time, I hurt my ankle and had to take downtime, so now I started over again last week – slowly.
The Swimming – ankle support
I swim, I’m trying to improve my lap time, but my ankle kept torquing there too, I had to get a swim ankle brace, but I’ve been able to swim regularly again now, and my lap time has improved, and I now do over a mile 5-6 days a week. Days that I feel tired, I have a slower lap time, I beat myself up for going so slow all the way home, but try to shake it off while making dinner.
At work, I can do every right. Cross all I need off my list, and I feel accomplished. Then I realize I forget to get an essential ingredient(s) for dinner at the store. What do you think I think of? Not the accomplishments, but then I pivot on the dinner, and make something else, most of the time it turns out better than I thought it would.
Improvising works!
So, my point it, it’s time to reset. Reset your thinking if you’re like me. Remember the good, the great, the lucky break even. Yes, I’d rather be great or even good than lucky, but I’ll take the luck, any day.
We all need some encouragement sometimes, so hopefully this has helped someone recalibrate their mindset to remember the good or great things you’ve done and accomplished up to now. And, if you’ve taken mid-steps or not even started your plans for 2023, reset now.
There are 24 hours in a day. You can restart your 24 hours at any time, whether it’s 10am, 2pm, or Midnight. It’s YOUR 24 hours. Let go of any regret of not even starting what you set out to do – YET. You can start your 24 hours now, or anytime you choose.
Love Yourself First, the rest Will come. Act and think like “it’s on its way”, and it will come. You need to think that it’s coming first, then it will. Be patient, be persistent, be courageous, be humble, be grateful.
Love yourself like you’re the last YOU on earth, because you are.
I’ve learned to Face Everything And Recover (facing one’s fears)
When I was young we had a couple of golf irons (I just called them clubs back then) among a garage bin-full of other sporting equipment. One day my brother and sisters decided to try “golfing” in our front yard for the first time.
I couldn’t tell you the brand of the 2-3 irons, or the golf balls we had acquired from a garage sale, but since it was something we were “trying out” for fun, they did the job for a group of kids ages 7-19 years old just trying something out.
Our corner property was long and large enough to play many sports on. We didn’t have an actual hole or pin, just a target we competed to get within range of. We did this with many activities and sports, it was a lot of fun.
At 7 years old (I was the youngest), I didn’t know anything about golf, but I had watched Wide World of Sports on TV, so I tried to emulate what I saw. Big swing, aim for the ball, and off it went – in at least the smallest of coincidences – it did so in the right direction. But, not for everyone in the group of course.
Here’s where a massive problem arose. It was my third turn up to swing (we started each “round” in order of oldest to youngest at the same place in the yard from the target at the end of the property). I blithely set-up the ball and positioned the shared club (fearless, and unaware at that time). Started on my BIG back-swing. Aaaaaand Whammm – my sister was sneaking up behind me to break my concentration. She succeeded. Aaaaaaand, I accidentally hit her hard with the club just above her left eyebrow. It was a gash, (lucky it wasn’t her eye), but with that back swing, I had given her not just a welt, but a bloody gash, aaaand turns out – a concussion.
She was rushed to the hospital. It took decades for the guilt to go away, and seeing the scar to this day, brings the whole episode to the forefront of my memory. Yes, I do realize that it wasn’t my fault, but I was involved, I was holding the club, I still hold myself responsible even though ultimately my sister was and is ok.
But, I was so traumatized, I didn’t pick up a golf club again until last year. I still to this day look around me before ever thinking of striking a ball (whether a softball, or golf ball, a good idea no matter what).
Later in life, I worked at ABC’s Wide World of Sports – in fact I told my mom earlier that same summer when I was 7, yes 7 that I was going to “work there someday”, and I did. Out of the mouths of children comes truth. I didn’t know what that meant at the time, luckily I do now.
I never was told that was a big dream back then, I wasn’t told it wouldn’t be attainable, I just received the gift reply of “ok honey”. My parents had no idea what it meant either, so there was no reason to not believe it was true.
I worked on many different sporting events including golf – I studied the players for each event I worked so I could recognize them if and when needed. From Golf, College & Monday Night Football, Horse Racing, Auto Racing, Bowling, Ice Skating, and Gymnastics. It was a great time. Thing is, I worked out all the, but stopped playing sports. I didn’t really even realize that until right this moment when I wrote that.
I played sports, did running events, did gymnastics, and dance class in grade & middle school, then went to performing arts high school for dance, but with that stopped “competitive sports”.
After college, I took to physical volunteering for different causes: cycling events, running events, swimming events, then began triathlons, just last year I participated in tough mudders too (and I love doing all of them).
Last year I started playing softball again. I’m relearning everything, I also have set aside my predisposition regarding golf, have taken lessons, and love the entire process. I regret not getting out of my own way mentally about the game. I’m still cognizant of my surroundings, where people, animals, and things are in relation to what I’m doing, not just in golf, but in life as well.
My Personal Take Away:
It’s wise to always know my surroundings, the fear has left, but the good practice of ensuring my and others safety prior to taking any swing (in sports, personally, and business opportunity), is just good sense. Don’t let fear stop you, let it inform you to be careful, but not hinder you action.
You’ve worked and worked. Shown up, gone above and beyond at work, with friends and family too. You’ve volunteered for the food bank, and local toy drive, helped neighbors with packages, and driven them to appointments they forgot about, and they didn’t want to take a car service.
You’ve gone to holiday gatherings for over a month for work and with friends. You’ve networked with your business contacts, sent notes, emails, well wishes done everything possible to bring good will to others.
Work is great, your friends and family are great, you’ve taken care of your significant other. Now what ?
It’s YOU time, that’s what!
Don’t forget about Yourself. I learned 12 years ago (on my yoga mat) that taking time for yourself is Not selfish, it’s actually one of many self-less things you can do for yourself and others. Ummm hmhmmm – it’s true.
Say what now?
Take one hour for yourself Today in anyway you’d like. A walk, meditate, if you want movement involved – work out (today I worked out, then did yoga, later I’ll play a little golf), listen to music, take a bath, swim, read, write, play an instrument, play /practice a sport, but do it. Yes Today!
You should set aside time everyday for yourself. It doesn’t always need to be an hour, just set aside some “boundary time” (time you will not be disturbed). No kids, no family, no friends, no texting, no social media – just where you’re doing You, unplugged to reset. No bills, no cooking, no cleaning, no kids (even for 5 minutes), breathe…..
This brings you back to you, the best version of you gets to emerge from this practice because not only your wants are met, an intrinsic Need of Re-connecting with yourself occurs.
You don’t know what to pick? It doesn’t HAVE to be any one thing. Pick one thing a day to try. Try something new. I chose yoga, it was the single greatest thing I did, because I didn’t even know at that moment how much I needed it yet. I just wanted to get out of the house, be with people – and try a class at my new gym. This year, learning golf and its process has me in the same zone. It’s amazing.
After the new year I’m taking a 4 day completely unplugged break. No phone, no email, no phone calls (except for emergencies only). I haven’t had a break since COVID began. Working and living at home has crossed some serious time boundaries, every day seemed to run into the next until I set some boundaries.
Exception: In an emergency, “me” time can be interrupted – but the house better be on fire! Ok, maybe not literally on fire, but I think I’ve made my point.
And, if I haven’t made my point. My point is take a break before you do!
Everyone needs even a quick reset, make it a 5 minute a day practice to start (and build from there), I guarantee others will see a positive change in you before you do. You’ll be healthier and much happier.
You’re worth it, believe it, own it, be it. You have permission to just think of yourself for at least 5 minutes a day – for the rest of your life. Then, you can return to your job, following up on tasks, the carpool, doing the dishes, grocery shopping, cleaning up after your pets and loved ones.
This is not a New Year’s resolution. Leave all your worries and things to do outside a virtual or physical door. When I step onto my yoga mat or write, nothing else exists at that moment in time. I can compartmentalize with such focus that nothing else exists, it’s almost like being in a trance. There are hours I’ve easily written through, and stepped onto my yoga mat hundreds of times, hearing just the voice of the instructor, going through the entire class, moving through each Asana, and found myself at the end not even realizing that someone else was in the room with me. It’s transcendent. It’s transformative.
It’s what I didn’t even know that I needed. Permission. Permission to think of just that for that moment in time.
You have permission to break from the task filled universe and be selfish for yourself, then you can be of service and more of yourself with the world.
Beginning a new position at a new company, working with a new team is exciting, maybe a little scary, but full of potential. Broadcast production is changing at a breakneck pace with cloud streaming, SMPTE2110, bandwidth constraints, NDI, RTMP, RTSP, SRT, HLS streams, SFPs, CDNs, and a mountain of other technology devices, and Software as a Service (SaaS) growing exponentially everyday.
Doing more with less has always been the trend. Now that is the rule rather than the exception. Not only do we need to do more with less, we need to automate systems, and have automated notification systems to let us know what may be going wrong.
This does not absolve us from manually checking -in, usually remotely though. Bots are now not a luxury, they are a necessity, but they still do not override the humans who run them. Remember, you come first, people come first. We need to take the sailing saying “one hand for yourself, one hand for the boat (to hold on). This is the epitome of taking care of yourself and whatever your “boat” is, and being safe.
You can’t give away what you don’t have. If you’re not ok, you cannot help or be of service to someone else. Remember self care? Give yourself a minute or five for meditation, a walk, a phone break to connect to another human (especially if you’re working completely remotely).
Speaking to that end, make sure you stay connected with your boss, and work team. If YOU are the sole team member, reach out to others outside of your group to interact with them, take a class, join a business volunteer group – stay connected, and communicate. Communication is key.
Luckily in production, even technical fully remote production, I HAVE to communicate with colleagues daily. It is very satisfying to me when I’m solving problems – fixing issues is how I work. Find out what excites you, and go after it. It may not happen overnight, but it is possible. The journey is not always easy. That maybe just for me though. I do feel that if I’ve worked for something and the “result” isn’t what I wanted, maybe I wasn’t specific enough as to what my intention was. So, I drill down to more details of what I want (which is always to be challenged to fix something).
This applies not only to work. I love fixing things in the house. Whether it’s spackling and painting a hole or spot on wall, changing out the broken igniter on the heater, reinstalling the screen on the front door, or cutting the hedges in the yard. This is also the basis on how I approach sports.
Take golf for instance. Recently a good friend bought a brand new set of highly technically advanced Callaway clubs. Now, there are many choices out there, and her “old set” of Callaway Rogues are in perfect condition. I’m a newer golfer, but have found a great love for the game and its process (even on a bad day), but I bought the “old” set of Rogues for a deal. I took my golf lesson with them, and then played a round with them the next day. Today I’ll goto the driving range, chip out of sand bunker, and putting green to continue my process.
“New” used Callaway clubs, my old bag, but it all works
The point is, we never know when or where an opportunity will pop up. I in turn gave away my old set to someone just starting out like I had last year. Yes, I bought the set, but watching someone have a true love and interest in growing themselves made me want to pay it forward and give to them in turn. I do a lot of volunteering as well, there are many ways to give back. Your time and attention to someone in need is invaluable!
Pay it forward in all aspects of your life, whether in-business, health, friendship, volunteering, being a good neighbor. We are here for more than ourselves. It’s a great-big world out there, be apart of it, you’ll be better all around for it. I call that being IN the green room.
My new job is completely remote, it’s a great team, and we learn everyday. We “live” our work-lives virtually in the cloud, but we are together in the production “green room”.
Whether you are just learning something new, or a seasoned veteran in your career, a new hobby, or completely pivoting your life choices, or how you approach “where you want to go next”, there are some simple premises that remain steadfast.
My actual golf bag
I started to learn Golf this year, I love it! I love the process, I love practicing driving the floater balls into the lake or range, I love putting and chipping areas, and getting even a half hour of practice in any day of the week that I can. In golf, my driving, isn’t that great – YET. But, my short game is actually wayyy better than anyone expected it to be (I’m not bragging, I have practiced a lot). I love to practice both driving, and “the short game” though. I actually have a lesson later today. With my “new” used Callaway Rogueclubs. I keep practicing BOTH areas which have very different approaches. The key is the consistency of practicing both areas, and sticking with it, even if I’m hitting a Callaway, Titleist, or my new favorite Taylormade’sKalea ball well on any given day, even if the day before I was doing very well, the next day I may not (and usually don’t) do as well.
This is true in ALL areas of life, career, athletics of any kind. I play softball with a team. For the first time in years I’m playing again (re-learning some things), and I’m also learning pickleball (I used to play tennis regularly, so pickleball has been quite intuitive). I also swim, and run regularly, and have now done tough mudders. I have I found a great affinity for mudders because the premise is everyone helping everyone get through the obstacles together. I love the diversity of each sport, the skill set is different for each and every one of them. I employ this thinking when it comes to my work life, and career.
I’ve been fortunate to have had a truly varied work life. I’ve taken jobs that I knew would be a stretch for my skill set, where there was a lot to learn, and did them. How? Practice, reading, being curious, asking questions even before I accepted the job. That also lets the new employer know that you wish to grow and learn, and move forward, and that you are forward thinking.
The point is I had to be willing to fail too. If I kept trying, I could be “wrong”, but I didn’t necessarily “fail”. But I did “fail”, I took big swings, and sometimes I got a yes, and many times I got a “no”, but I kept going. I didn’t see it as a game, it was my life career, there was definitely a strategy.
Where did I start? I listed everything that I’d be happy to do, also what I wouldn’t be happy doing, and most importantly what would I be ecstatic to do. Then, within that, I listed things that I could already knew, what would be a challenge, and even further, what I didn’t think was even possible for me to do. It’s a tough list. Then I listed the WHY I had these beliefs. I then wrote beside that negative list, a positive list of how I could achieve what I thought to be impossible. The amazing thing was that breaking it down into these categories and the solutions to get where I wanted to be made it seem at least possible.
After much introspection came self awareness, looking at time, level of effort, how my life would change, how it would change my family’s life, I came to a much smaller list. I took the impossible list and broke each section down even more into chunks to begin. Just starting the list was the hardest part. It’s like going to the gym to workout sometimes, you don’t want to go, but when you get there you’re good to go, and revved up. It’s true. I began researching, and reading everything I could. Took every free webinar I could on what I wanted to learn, paid for others when I was ready, and suddenly I found myself suggesting things to my bosses. Again, not all winners, but I was putting myself out there.
If you don’t try and fail then you’re not reaching high enough. I built a time based formula, let’s say 6 months to a year. 10% would be things that I knew I could succeed at instantly, 20% I knew I could succeed at with a specific amount of research and effort (whether hands on or not), the next 20% I wasn’t sure if I could succeed in 6 months, but knew I could within a year, the final 50% were super stretch goals that I knew without great time and effort that I probably wouldn’t succeed at at all in a year. You know what? I found that with the time based goal schedule, a set plan for time and effort, I could reasonably do while still giving my family their much deserved attention, I succeeded at about 98%.
Career goals were actually easier to attain than my physical goals. I’m not a scratch golfer – yet 🙂 but I’m working on it. I’ve done the tough mudders, half marathons, triathlons, bike-a-thons, and finished them all, but I didn’t finish “as quickly” as I wanted, but I finished. The point has been each time I’ve progressed. Athletically I’ve always been active. I got hurt earlier in this year, I recovered in about 4 or so weeks, and started out slowly to rebuild. Then, I needed surgery. It turned out to be far more extensive than the x-ray had shown, but 6 weeks later I was allowed to begin just walking again. The area “weeped” for weeks, I kept a bandage on it, I even went to the pool and just did a couple of very slow laps. In no time I was back at it.
Then, a few months ago, I was jumping out of the way of someone walking their dogs, I hopped into the street and rolled my ankle. Ok, that was annoying, I walked it off, so I thought. It felt ok, I iced, I put a wrap on it, and a few days later I went off in the early morning to play softball.
At bat
All was ok in the world for that moment. Then, I hit the ball, and ran hard to first base, there was a soft spot/hole and my right foot happened to hit it, I popped forward and double hopped on my left foot, getting to first base – I was safe! My right ankle was a bit angry at me, but ok, so I thought. The next batter made the last out of the inning, so I went to get my glove, and went into the field.
I played 2 more innings, but didn’t get up to bat again. I came in from making a play, and as I was walking in, my ankle had spoken. “You’re done”, and as I walked in – limping now, I said out loud “I’m done scratch me from the line-up”. I didn’t fail here, I listened to my body. I iced it for the remainder of the game from the dugout. I went home and iced it a lot more, put the Futuroankle brace on it, had an ice-boot in the freezer (life saver), ok, I think it’ll be ok. Not so much.
Futuro Brace
The next day, I couldn’t walk on it without a brace at all. I luckily made an appointment with a orthopedist immediately, and he took an X-Ray. I had broken this ankle in August 2018, I have a plate and 6 screws in it. Luckily all were in place, all the screws were in place, it was all soft tissue damage, and my posterior tibial tendon was “angry”.
The doctor told me I needed a walking boot for 6 weeks at least. “Ugh Really?” Really?? And not just the shorty one, one that went up to my knee (to immobilize all of the muscles surrounding my ankle), I could get one there or order one on Amazon. Since getting a walking boot through the doctor would cost about 6x more than ordering a really good one from Amazon, I ordered through them, and it was delivered, I kid you not the next morning before 10am for no extra charge. The AircastAirselectWalker boot (yes all the way up to my knee) became my new best friend. It truly did its job beautifully.
I went to softball games just to cheer, I went to the gym to do upper body work, I went to the pool (took it off and left it by the steps), and gently walked in the pool, I couldn’t full out swim, but when I did swim, I just dragged my legs. I did “cast” yoga, anything that I could do I did. 6 weeks did not go by quickly.
Then I was able to start wrapping my ankle again, so I walked around the house with just the wrap and good foot support. I finally went for a short walk for a couple weeks. I felt good, but I also ordered the Aryse IFAST Ankle Stabilizer Brace ankle support to fit IN a sneaker or shoe, and then they also have one that fits on the outside of my softball cleats the Aryse XFAST Exo Brace. Amazing, it’s all laced up and Ready To Go.
I’ve been playing softball, running and now swimming again (with the Nvorliy Ankle Brace for Swimming), no awkward kicks, and I’m still icing afterward, but I’m back in business. It sounds like a lot, but to restart and keep my ankle safe going forward, all necessary, and once it became routine, like anything else, it has become second nature, and I’m enjoying all my activities once again.
Again, I stress consistency, tenacity, taking decided chances, but also listening to your body, and stopping when you need to. Your body will tell you one way or the other. Listen to your body.
This does not just apply to sports, this applies to your work-life, and all life choices. If you give yourself the tools you need to do anything in life, you can accomplish it. Aside from reading, I watch YouTube videos for many things relating to my work (getting my CompTia Network+ certification), SMPTE2110 / AES67 Certifications, to golf tips. It all applies.
Never stop being curious, never stop trying. Put tasks into smaller attainable chunks, and build on that each day or week, whatever your schedule may be. Write is down. Write down your victories. Write down your failures, and what you’ve learned from them, and what you could do differently next time. Just keep trying until you get your win. No matter how big or little, just take it one step at a time, you are where you are at right now, just keep moving forward.
That's News To Me 