01/07/2010: "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"

Yesterday I stepped up to the plate and pitched a big idea to the powers that be at work. Then I ran past the ball while it was in mid air, picked up a bat and hit it out of the park. I took a leisurely stroll around the bases to pay my due respect. And walked back to the dug out with the shouts of the crowd still ringing in my ears.

It felt great. For a moment. But tomorrow is a whole new ball game. And now the stakes have been raised, the press releases have gone out and there's money on the game.

Tomorrow nobody will care about the points I scored yesterday. Because in the working world you're only as good as your next performance.

I can feel the adrenaline running through my body. My attention narrowing, my energy focusing. My eyes never leaving the ball, even when they're closed in sleep. Perhaps I am discovering a competitive drive. It's not that I feel any need to defeat an opponent. Only that I like the feeling of doing well and better. I am sick at the thought I might fail.

Did I say that I'm having the time of my life?

Three morals in this story:

1. A good way to improve your performance is to risk playing a bigger game.
2. Winning feels great.
3. Nobody wins them all.

Yours with creativity and imagination,
Darlene

p.s. I play for the best team in the league and they are teaching me the secrets of teamwork, which only now I am anxious to learn.

p.p.s. I once was hired to lead a retreat with the physician Chiefs of Staff of a major American medical center. I got there and realized I had forgotten the chimes I use to keep the time so I sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game and God Bless America to call them back from the breaks. Some of the best reviews I ever got. And one physician switched teams as a result of the workshop and has become a professional coach.