The Baseball Observer Mental Skills Issue | Page 20

The Baseball Observer - March/April 2017

What do you think is the most important factor in achieving success and accomplishing our goals?

Hint: Externals are definitely at play here – our environment, resources, and access matter – I get that.

But.

There is something we can control. And this something matters even more than the externals…

In college I dropped out (more accurately: flunked out) of Intro to Chemistry.

Each day I sat in the back of the classroom feeling like I wasn’t smart enough to figure it out, that science wasn’t my thing, and that I didn’t belong in that class. After about a month of that + two failed tests, I walked out of a lecture and never returned.

Meanwhile…

There was (and still is) a group of men in Kansas who spend their time reading and discussing books on science, philosophy,

learning, and life.

They share their discoveries, write business plans, poetry, and even art of their own. They are learning machines.

These men, who are part of a reentry program called Brothers in Blue, live in Lansing State Penitentiary and I was at Duke University.

I was at a place literally designed for learning. My professor was renowned in the world of science. I had all of the tools and resources for learning at my fingertips – the Brothers in Blue do not.

Yet:

by Trevor Ragan – Founder Train Ugly

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