Leave It All On The Field

Every coach will tell you to “Leave it all on the field.” This is a saying that I have heard many times. From my years playing Baseball and Football, or even today on my daily workouts. This phrase though, means so much more than how you should feel on the proverbial field. I look at this phrase as a way of life and apply it to a lot of different aspects of my life.

Everytime I complete a task I want to feel like I have accomplished something. I hate to have that feeling of “If I only did this…” or “If I had extra time…” this self doubt has driven me crazy through both my professional and personal career. A lot of this feeling though came from me waiting to do things at the last minute. Having that “I do my best work at the 12th hour” mentality was something I needed to grow out of and fast.

Knowing that this attitude was not sustainable, I adapted the chipper mentality. This mentality allows you to chip away at something over time, so that you never take on something that feels completely overwhelming and end up burning out. In order to use this effectively you have to work on time-management. Procrastinating is the worst thing you can do. Creating a game plan and setting up small goals or milestones for yourself in achievable bites allows you to feel fulfilled throughout the whole process.

Of course there are times when I am still working on something up until the very end, but that has now become a choice instead of the routine. Usually when I make a last minute change, it is because I have had a better idea or want to make a tweak to what is already written. Developing this mindset has allowed me to put my focus where it is needed and not burn out. Even if you work a few hours a day on a project and chip away at it, it always seems to come out much better than when you cram it in, College style.

I have applied this focus to other areas as well, especially in my workout routine. When there is a long workout planned, I used to hit the first few reps hard and burn out before the workout was done. Now, I know that pacing myself and turning it up at specific areas will give me much better results. Mapping out achievable points in the work out then pushing myself to beat what I know I can do.

The same goes for my personal life. We are currently in the process of remodeling our basement. We chose to do it ourselves and when we took on that task 4 years ago, it seemed damn near impossible. Now, we are a few short weeks away from it being completely finished. Mapping out the stages of how we would achieve this helped us get it done in a much more manageable way. Knowing that we would first work on emptying the basement, to demo, reframing the walls, electrical, tile, and ceiling allowed us to chip away at what once seemed like a bohemieth of a project. Of course we had help along the way, but it was still something we were able to achieve on our own timeline.

I realize that this isn’t a groundbreaking mentality, but it is certainly something that has helped me figure out how to manage all the things I have going on. The biggest obstacle to overcome is procrastination. Once you are able to map out a plan and create achievable goals, you will be able to close your eyes at night and know that you gave it everything you had, and you left it all on the field.