baseball – The Affirmation Spot Blog

The Kansas City Royals are Winners Again

On the 27th of October in ’85
Hardly a fan is now alive
Who remembers that famous date and year

Well, that’s not quite true, but you do have to be about 40 to remember the Kansas City Royals playing a significant baseball game in September. With their 3-0 shutout of the Minnesota Twins tonight at Kauffman Stadium, the revamped 2013 Royals pushed their record to 6-3.

It’s early in the season, to be sure. Yet, there is something more than an early season hot streak happening here. There is a young, talented team with veteran leadership and a new demeanor taking the field each day. There is a team showing signs of persuading a doubting fan base and touching some the glory this franchise once new – not in two years, not next year, but right now.

With a roster filled with minor league all-stars and a young bullpen that was one of baseball’s biggest surprises last year, the Royals’ leadership finally bit the bullet and went out and obtained some legitimate major league starters in the off-season. The early polls are in and this writer is projecting victory.

Because I am old enough to remember, I recall the 1984 Royals that sneaked into an unexpected division title with a veteran line up and some young gun arms. A year later that team would go all the way, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals in a thrilling seven-game series and topping off a decade-long run of excellence. Times have been lean since. This year’s team has veteran arms and a young offense ready to emerge into its prime. I’m not sure if this team will be 1984 or 1985, but it is going to be good.

It’s early, but I am ready to make my Royals prediction for this year. Barring significant injuries, this team will go 90-72 and be in the hunt for at least a wildcard. Have faith Royals fans. There are meaningful games coming this September.

Stay inspired!

Ray

MP3 Baseball Affirmations

Baseball Opens! – The Affirmation Spot for Monday April 5, 2010

Today’s Affirmation:
“Winners are not people who never lose. Winners are people who never quit.

Although there were a few early games last night, baseball’s official opening day is today. Once again every major league team is 0-0 and hope for pennant and World Series title springs eternal.

Baseball has been America’s pasttime for more than 100 years. However, it didn’t have an official anthem until John Fogerty recorded “Centerfield” in 1985. This feel-good song not only evokes the spirit of baseball, but of Spring after a long cold winter.

It also repeats and repeats the universal affirmation of athletes everywhere, “Put me in coach. I’m ready to play today.” Baseball fan or not, this song is sure to pick up your day!

Stay inspired and play ball!

Ray

Our Thoughts Filter Our Experiences – The Affirmation Spot for Monday December 14, 2009

Check Out My Affirmation Apps. 15-minute meditations or workout tracks with affirmations.

Check out our affirmation apps for Apple devices or search i-mobilize on the iTunes store. The Affirmation Spot is developing these motivation apps in partnership with i-mobilize. Click an app to view it – Love Magnet, Business Success, Make A Difference Affirmation, or Full Body Scan, Rising Star Cardio Affirmation, and many more.

One of the reasons it is so important to work on the way you think about your life is that your thoughts are the filter through which you see every event in your life.

Let’s take a simple example of how the exact same event can be dramatically different based on what you think about the situation.

April: You’re watching your favorite baseball team play a spring training game. It’s bottom of the ninth and two outs. Your team is up 3-2 and the opposing team has runners at second and third. The hitter hits a ground ball right to your shortstop. It goes right between his legs allowing the winning runs to score.

How do you feel? You’re probably upset for a little while, but then you have the thought, “Well, it’s just a spring training game. It’s not that important.”

July: You’re watching your favorite baseball team play their arch rival. It’s bottom of the ninth and two outs. Your team is up 3-2 and the opposing team has runners at second and third. The hitter hits a ground ball right to your shortstop. It goes right between his legs allowing the winning runs to score.

How do you feel? You’re probably a lot more upset than you were about the spring training game. It might ruin your night. You might spend much of the next day commiserating with other fans of your team on how they let that game get away against the big rival.

Objectively, this is the exact same situation. The difference is your thoughts about it.

November: Your team, despite a shortstop who can’t field ground balls, has made it to the World Series. You’re watching game seven. It’s bottom of the ninth and two outs. Your team is up 3-2 and the opposing team has runners at second and third. The hitter hits a ground ball right to your shortstop. It goes right between his legs allowing the winning runs to score.

How do you feel? You’re thinking, “We just lost the world series because on play that should have been handled and we could have won.” Again, the events are objectively precisely the same as the other two situations. However, you might have a crummy few months during the off season constantly thinking about the World Series victory that should have been. If you’re a big fan, it might even impact other parts of your life. You’ll probably still be talking about it in 20 years.

Of course, this scenario is just for example purposes. But how many things do we do this with in life? You could choose to see all three events as, “Well, it’s just a baseball game and these things happen.”

I’m not saying that’s the way you should see it or that you shouldn’t have passion for things. I’m saying that the only difference in the three scenarios is your thoughts about the situation and its relative importance.

We all do this constantly. Our thoughts, not people or events, create our mood and our mindset. Obviously, outside circumstances serve as triggers, but ultimately it comes down to how we choose think about the event.

Today notice the times in your life when you make everything the world series situation instead of being willing to see life as a kind of spring training game where you and the people around you are all working to get better.

Stay inspired!

Ray

2009 Affirmation

“This year I am absolutely committed to being the person I came here to be!”

5 Ingredients for Success – The Affirmation Spot for Monday August 18, 2008

Watching the Olympics really highlights the narrow margin between greatness and near greatness when it comes to sports and life. But for a 1/100th of a second here or an extra step there, the winners and the almosts would be quite different. The message is that the margin of victory is small, but opportunities for success are many.

As I pointed out in one recent post, I really believe we are in a race of one. The world may appoint one person the “winner” and someone else the “loser”; but we really are in a pursuit of own highest potential. Winners and losers are an administrative detail.

Someone who works hard for years towards a goal is not a loser by any measure. They may not be labeled winner or victor, but they are an unqualified success.

There are many, many things that contribute to success. However, they can be broken down into five key ingredients that repeatedly create success.

Talent – talent in a particular endeavor really is a baseline for success in that field. That’s not to say that you cannot derive satisfaction and happiness from painting even though you’ll never be Monet. You most certainly can! However, if your goal is success in a pursuit, it’s best to start with where your talent lies. Talent can be natural or developed.
Motivation – all the talent in the world is nowhere without the motivation to develop it and advance it to a superior level. Motivation is a lot about excelling the talent and being willing to do the hard work. It’s also the mental part of the equation. Motivation is all about your thinking.
Hard work – even in the age of electronic communication, social networking, and global media there is still no substitute for hard work. Success comes to talented, motivated, hard workers.
A little help from your friends – it’s easy to see how this works in a team sport. A football team cannot win without a quarterback, offensive tackles, linebackers, punters, etc. Really, though, most high-level endeavors in life are a team effort. These Olympians we see winning medals have coaches, massage therapists, sponsors, and others that make it possible for them stand on that platform.
Luck – there may be five really great sales professionals in a company, but only one is the top. Two great teams meet in The World Series every year, but only one great team becomes world champion. Sometimes you can have other four factors and it comes down to the way a ball bounces. Luck can be the deciding factor between individuals or teams that have done the other four. However, luck is overrated by many people who see all success as luck. It rarely is. Many people give up when luck goes against them. The key is to start right back with the motivation and start the process again. You were not the top sales person this time, but you can be next time. You can lose the Super Bowl by inches, but start again at training camp with the goal to get there again.

Stay inspired!

Ray

www.theaffirmationspot.com offers downloadable mp3 affirmations for nearly every area of life – sports, sales, wealth and prosperity, health and fitness – to name just a few. Our library is growing all the time. Remember your fifth affirmation on each order is always free.

Beyond the Survivor China Finale – The Affirmation Spot for Monday December 17, 2007

Welcome to The Affirmation Spot. If this is your first time to the site, be sure to click one of the subscription options (top left) to be notified each time the blog is updated. Thank you for visiting. If you enjoy what you read here, help us spread the word about The Affirmation Spot.

There are direct links to downloadable mp3 affirmations at The Affirmation Spot.com on the right menu. They are set to music and allow you take positive thoughts with you wherever you go all day.

There are new affirmations in the Christianity section, the tennis section, and the Personal Empowerment section.

Enjoy today’s post.

Today’s affirmation is:

“Today I am succeeding in life without compromising my values.”

Last night was the season finale of America’s favorite reality show – Survivor. I am a passive fan of the show. My wife really enjoys it and so I wind up watching about half the episodes each season with her.

For those of you who are regular viewers, you know all about the final tribal council. Let me catch up those readers who don’t watch the show. The goal of the show is to become the sole survivor and to win $1 million.

On the final show each season, the jury – comprised of the last seven people voted out – has an opportunity to question the final three survivors as to why each deserves the jury’s vote for the million dollars.

Invariably, the subject of deceit and lying comes up. The accepted wisdom of the show is that these characteristics are necessary to advance in the game. Generally, those players who are most adept at duplicity and use it without compunction are contenders to win the show.

The jury is comprised of people victimized by the treachery. Often they are understandably bitter and chastise the finalists for this behavior. The response is always the same. “Hey, it was just ‘game’. It’s not who I really am outside the game.”
Afterall, lying, cheating, stealing, and stabbing in the back are not only the norm in the game, but the only way to have a chance to win.

The Survivor book of wisdom says that honesty, concern for others, and integrity are characteristics that demonstrate weakness and are likely to get you eliminated.

This season, as is often the case, the biggest schemer in the game was awarded the million dollars. At the end of the day, the jury normally recognizes and rewards that person’s behavior. The jury develops A kind of awe of the person’s ability to “play the game”.

The message is clear. It is not that the game should have been conducted more honorably, but that whatever expedient means are necessary to win, are acceptable. Vice becomes virtue.

Of course, ‘the game’ in survivor is only a thinly veiled reference to the game of life we all play every day. The fact that these values are rewarded in a microcosm representing our world is troubling. This is a highly popular show watched by millions of children and young adults.

Is Survivor unwittingly teaching this generation that the fastest way to success is to abandon a positive approach to life and do whatever you must to achieve? Is the take away that as long as I can separate who I really am from what I have to do to win, it’s OK?

The news has recently been filled with information that some of baseball’s most respected icons may have been cheating the system and skewing the record books. This generation’s top hitter (Barry Bonds) and its top pitcher (Roger Clemens) have been implicated in the scandal along with a who’s who list of the games brightest stars. Are we seeing another
version of the same mentality – “I’ll do whatever I must to be on top?”

Are Survivor and the baseball scandal broadcasting a warning to us? I want to shy away from empty moralizing here, but taking the shortcuts or the easy way is always a temptation in life. We’ve gone beyond “me-first” to “me-only” thinking.

However,when this mentality rules in a society that society is risking collapse. No one trusts anyone else and every one hunkers down in a bunker mentality. People become short-sighted and the ability to cooperate lessens.

We need to ask ourselves whether or not this message represents the society we all want to live in.

We are capable of so much more! There is a superior way to achieve in life. We can build our skills, improve our outlook, and work towards our goals. We can learn to work towards goals that benefit me, but don’t tear down your dreams in the process. We can, indeed we must, pursue our dreams without leaving footprints on the backs of our colleagues
and friends.

I’m not advocating a world where there are no winners and no losers or where everything is “fair”. Such a world does not really exist. I’m also not saying Survivor isn’t tantalizing entertainment or pushing the idea that it should be off the air.

What I am suggesting is that we remember something clearly forgotten in Survivor and the baseball scandal. We cannot separate who we truly are from what we are willing to do to win. The real “game” we are here to play is one where we must learn to maximize our own potential without hurting others in the process.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Be peaceful Be prosperous

Ray

The Affirmation Spot

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