The Power of Having Fun

I have a recurring dream where I am sitting on the bench for my high school baseball team and hating every second of it.  Every game I go up and check the lineup card – even though I already know I’m not on it – and every time, I am disappointed.

I’ve had versions of this dream at least a dozen times, and each time it’s different.  However, the feelings are the same – anger, bitterness, and disappointment that I am not playing.

The dream comes from real-life experience.  I played baseball all through high school and my first two years of college, and spent time on the bench.  Too much time for my liking.  I couldn’t stand it.  It made me insane.  I am a fierce competitor.  I wanted to be in the games.  I wasn’t.

That was more than 20 years ago, and somehow those feelings stayed with me all this time.  That’s how much I hated sitting on the bench.  I still have nightmares about it.

When I wake up from the dream, it feels as though it just happened – even though baseball hasn’t been a part of my life in over 20 years.

When I actually got chances to play, I didn’t play particularly well.  I worked really hard to be good at baseball.  It was my whole life back then.  But when I got into the games, I was too nervous to perform.

I had put so much pressure on myself that I couldn’t go out there and have fun.  I was paralyzed by fear.  Not because of external pressure, but because of the pressure I put on myself.  It was life or death.  So much of my identity was wrapped up in being a baseball player; it was as though my life would be over if I failed.

Of course, that wasn’t really the case.  It was all in my head.

If I could go back in time, I would tell my younger self not to put so much pressure on myself.  You perform better the more fun you have, and you can’t have fun if you are basing your whole self-worth on how well you play baseball.

Baseball is only a small part of life, not the whole thing – and it’s supposed to be fun.  The more fun you have, the better you perform, so the goal is to go out and have as much fun as possible.

That’s how I approach sports and competition now – my only goal is to have as much fun as possible.  Winning or losing is secondary.  It sounds strange to say that, but it’s true.

I focus on having fun because I know that the more fun I have, the better I will perform – and the better I perform, the better chance I have of winning.  And even if I don’t win, I still had a lot of fun – which is a win in itself.

I focus on fun, NOT because I don’t care, but because I do care.  Having fun optimizes your performance and puts you in the best possible position to win.

If you want to be a winner in sports and in life, focus on having fun.

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