The Baseball Theory of Life

Have you ever heard the saying "Life is like a baseball game?" No? Well, neither have I.

But I thought about it once, and it astounded me how much life and living resembled what happens out there on the baseball field.

Well, though, admittedly, I am no expert on the Major or Little Leagues, but thanks to the silver screen, I think I got the basics of the game pretty much figured out.



One day, I shared this analogous theory of mine to my class of students, and I could've sworn I heard the "Click!" go off in their teenage minds, accompanied by the gaped "I Got It!" expressions. Miss those kids...


The Game - In Layman Terms
Baseball is a sport played with bats and balls. The batter (the one with the bat) stands in the centre, surrounded by 4 corners, known as bases, which are 'secured' by 4 players on the other team. The pitcher (the ball-thrower), who is from the other team, will throw the ball (can this get anymore layman??) to the batter. The batter, will, with all his might (and tactics...) hit the ball. The main aim of the batter is to hit the ball as far away as he can, to disable the opponent team from getting to it and reaching the base before they do.

The opponent team's main aim is to get the ball and 'touch' one of the 4 bases on the field - and when this happens, it's "STTTRRRIIKKKEE OOONNEEE" for the batter. 3 strikes, and he's out. Once the batter hits the ball, his aim is to make it to 2nd base and as many bases as he can before the opponent team reaches the base - or he's out. But if he manages to reach the 4th and final base, that's a Home Run.

Phheeww! Believe me, for a girl that doesn't play much sports, that was an accomplishment of magnitude proportions!

So here it is, my Baseball Theory of Life.


The Baseball Theory of Life

1. The Ball Is Coming...What to Do?
A Lesson in Facing Challenges
In baseball, if you are holding the bat, you will be faced with the inevitable event of the ball hurling towards you. In this instance, what do you do? Well, let's identify the options.

(a) You can do the most obvious thing and hit it
(b) You can duck or run away so the ball won't hit you
(c) You can do absolutely nothing, knowing well the ball will hit you
(d) You can catch the ball and throw it back

Life is very much the same.

In life, we are faced with an insurmountable amount of challenges - this is almost always certain. Challenges must come because we are alive.

Did you know that the word 'life' originated from the Proto-Indo-European word 'lip', which means 'to remain, persevere and continue'? So you see, being alive is more than just being alive - we have to work at it. It's more of a verb, an action rather than a noun, really, if you think about it. So to persevere at life is to keep at it - keep at what? Keep facing everyday in the face so we can still be alive the next day.

One of my favourite authors and self help gurus, Tony Robbins once said, that in life, we are either climbing or sliding. If we strive to improve our lives, we become better (climbing); or if we choose not to do anything to improve, we actually become worse (sliding). So basically, this means, that even if you were to remain in status quo, some work needs to be done. Interesting observation, wouldn't you say?

So in life, challenges are inevitable..but it's not so much what happens that determine what kind of a person we are - it's how we react to what happens that shapes us.

If you look at it from the baseball point of view, you'll see that the options we have when the ball is approaching us are similar to the options we have in life.

Ask yourself - how do you react to challenges around you?

(a) Do you face it head on?
(b) Do you run away so the challenge won't be able to find or hurt you?
(c) Do you do absolutely nothing, knowing well that you will be hit hard by the challenge?
(d) Do you get mad and fight back or retaliate?

What would YOU do?

2. Do you have what it takes to Hit and Run?
A Lesson in Trust and Risk TakingHere, we are looking at the element of trust.

We humans are rather complicated. More often than not, we want to know why we need to do things that are asked of us, before we decide whether or not we want to do it. And often, we want to wait and see the consequence of our actions before moving on.

Now here's a question - if there is a system in place, and you are but one element of this system, and you have your very own role to play, as in all the other elements in the system...can you just play your role without wondering what the consequence or outcome is? Can you trust that if you do your part, that the other elements and the system will follow through?

There is an interesting story in Greek mythology, which backs this up.

Orpheus, was a great musician - and he married Eurydice. Life together was filled with bliss, until one day, Eurydice died of a snake bite. In Greek mythology, it is believed that those who pass on go to the Underworld, ruled by Hades. So, finding himself unable to bear the painful loss of his beloved wife, Orpheus decided to travel to the Underworld himself, to get her back.

The grim Hades, the God of the Underworld was enthralled by the musical charms of Orpheus, that he granted him his wish of having his wife Eurydice back with him in the real world. BUT, Hades' boon came with one condition. Hades said he will send Eurydice with Orpheus, but when Orpheus walks out of the Underworld, he was asked not to ever look back to see if Eurydice is following him. So basically, Hades asked Orpheus to trust him.

Young Orpheus, filled with excitement and anxiety, knowing that it will only be moments before he'd be able to have his wife back, started to walk confidently out of the caves. He walked, and he walked for what may have seemed like days! And then, he saw the mouth of the cave. Just as he was approaching the cave opening, he started questioning Hades' promise.

Is Eurydice really behind me?
Can I trust Hades?
What if I walk all the way, only to know that Hades has cheated me?
Oh no..I can't even hear her behind me...am I fooled?
And with each step he took, his doubts started to become more unbearable. His mind was in a mess because of uncertainty. And he made the biggest mistake in his life.
HE LOOKED BACK!

And as he did, he saw his wife, who was in fact, just behind him, being pulled away back to the Underworld.

I remember first reading this story, and feeling immense sadness and guilt! I mean, can you even imagine being in Orpheus' shoes?

The lesson here is TRUST.
How many of us trust things that are going on around us?

In baseball, the term hit and run is used when there is a player on the 2nd base, waiting to run to the 3rd base when the batter hits the ball. Here's what happens: when the batter hits the ball, he runs to the 2nd base, the player currently on the 2nd base will run to the 3rd, the player on 3rd will run onto the 4th and final base, and the team wins a Homerun.

Here's the trick. The player on 2nd base will start running just seconds before the batter hits the ball, so he gains advantage of time. Now, if the batter is good, he will be able to hit the ball far enough so the opponents would not be able to get to it before they reach their respective bases. BUT, what can happen, is that the batter does not hit the ball hard enough. In this case, the player on the 2nd base would have started running. So he would neither be on 2nd nor 3rd base when the ball is hit. If the opponent gets to the ball before he reached 3rd base, he's out.

So if you understand the game, you will see that the player on the 2nd base runs without even waiting to see how successful the batter was at hitting the ball. He just takes the risk and starts to run! What is this, if not TRUST in its finest form? And this is not easy to do, because you'd know that there is a possibility that you might be out.

What would you do if you're on 2nd base?
Would you run slower, so if in case the batter failed to do his job well, you could run back to the safety of the 2nd base?
Or would you trust the batter with all your life, decide to take the risk and start running the fastest you possibly can to get to the 3rd base?

We all know that sometimes, a choice must be made - you either run slow, or run fast. Because staying on the fence without a decision is the worst choice yet!

Can you trust the system (the game) enough to be able to just play your role without seeing the outcome of it? Do you believe that you are, in fact a part of a bigger picture, without sometimes being able to see the bigger picture?

Ask yourself these questions:
1. When working for an organization, and you realize that your days are filled with repetition, where you basically do the same thing over and over again - you write recruitment letters everyday; you sell the same product everyday; you work on the same programme everyday; you teach students everyday - do you trust that you are an important part of a bigger picture, or that your work is so mundane, it's unimportant?

2. If someone comes up to you and says "Paint this picture" but all you see is a small scrap of paper that means nothing, but he says that 1000 other people are painting little scraps that will later be joined into a big picture that does make sense, would you do it? Would you do it if it took 3 days to complete? 5 days? A week? A year? Would you do it, trustingly?

3. When you are planning a trip with your family, do you organize everything yourself because you simply cannot afford to trust others, in case they make a mistake and forget to do certain things that might ruin the vacation?

4. If you are running the 4 X 100m event, would you trust that once you have passed the baton to your team mate, that she will be able to reach the finish line as fast as you might have?
Do you trust that everything will be ok even if you don't put your hands in everything?
Do you trust your team mates enough to delegate tasks to them?
Do you trust your teacher enough to know that he'll lead you to success?
Do you trust your boss enough when he says that the risk he took or a tough decision he made was going to benefit the organization and you in the long run?
The thing is, sometimes, we are required to trust whole-heartedly. And sometimes, this lack of trust can lead to our downfall, especially when we are working in a system as a part of one whole.


Conclusion
So what do you think? Life is very much like a baseball game isn't it?
It's amazing what and how much we can learn from unorthodox methods.
Remember that learning is not only something you do in the classroom of your school. The whole world is a classroom. And everything and everyone around you can serve as teachers, if you'd only open up your mind enough to want to learn.

Learn what people say, from books, from TV shows, from conferences, from a walk in the park, from shopping, from dining and of course, from games and sports like baseball.

Sharmila is the CEO of the Professional Excellence and Lifelong Learning Centre. The opinions expressed here are of her own, based on her personal experience. PELL is an organization that strives on the concept of learning that is unconventional. The author welcomes comments at sharm79@gmail.com