If You Want Confidence, Just Swing the Bat

Do you know what a great batting average is? Do you know what a batting average means? If you are a baseball fan, then the answers will come as no surprise. For all the other folks it may come as a revelation to discover the answer to both of these questions.

And what does this have to do with confidence anyway?

The current top career batting average in Major League Baseball is held by Ty Cobb with a career average of .366 from 1905 to 1928. Did you notice that little dot in front of the 366? What that means is that out of every 1000 times Ty Cobb was at bat, he averaged 366 hits, less a few things like walks and sacrifices.

Do you have the confidence to miss that many times?

With a career average of .366 that means that Mr. Cobb missed hitting the ball on average 634 times out of a 1000 times at bat.Even more remarkable is that only 25 players in MLB history have batted .330 for their career averages. The rest of professional baseball players miss a whole lot of hits and still remain pros.

A good batting average is .300; hitting the ball 300 times out of 1000 times at bat and MISSING the ball 700 times out of 1000. Baseball players clearly have to have a lot of confidence to swing the bat and miss so many times. They must learn to tolerate the misses and not get dishearten and give up going for the 300 hits. Remember that those 300 hits are not necessarily home runs either.

This is not a treaty on baseball or batting averages. This is simply a powerful strategy to help you be more confident to deal with potential rejection and failure. Potential rejection and failure are two major inhibiting fears that stop you from taking action to be successful, especially if your are new at something.

When you are faced with some action which carries the threat of rejection, and you have done your homework, but you are still tempted to avoid taking action, remind yourself of the motto, “Just swing the bat.” Pretend that you are playing pro baseball.

“Just swing the bat” and see what happens will get you through the barrier of anxiety. You may at least get to first or second or even third base. Even if you do strike out, you will have the opportunity to learn something important that can lead you to make the homerun next time.

If you want to have confidence, just swing the bat.

© 2011 Lynn Kennedy Baxter, BSN, MA