If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Marcus Aurelius

A few years ago, I wrote a blog about FEAR and how it can be used to our benefit or to our detriment.

This week I am taking my 14U team to Southern California for our first showcase softball tournament of the fall.  Here they will get to showcase their talent in front of what I hope to be a bevy of college coaches as they start their journey which they hope concludes with a softball scholarship to one of the big 5 power conference softball powerhouses.  One of the things we have done besides hitting, fielding, pitching and catching is to strengthen their mindset and improve their mental toughness. This includes writing their softball vision or story, like Darren Hardy said in a recent Darren Daily broadcast, whatever we think about, good or bad, we start behaving in a way that reinforces what we think.

So, for my 18 players, especially the ones that commit to improving their mindset by doing the work I have challenged them with, they will see the benefits of this work on the field more so than the kid who puts an extra hour in hitting or pitching, but does nothing to improve their mindset. 

FEAR, becomes the great neutralizer and it something physiologically speaking know one can avoid.  So, the question is what do you do.  More hitting or fielding does not calm the nerves or reduce the fear.  I have been around softball players for 20 years and the very one who practice incessantly their skill set, but never their mindset is the very player who worries all game or expresses self doubt as soon as they make a mistake.  Hours and hours of practice is great, but hours of building a mindset where FEAR becomes a non-issue is greater.

FEAR can be a great fuel.  But FEAR left alone can also be a roadblock, FEAR can hold you back and cause you to stop chasing your dreams.  Ghandi said FEAR not hate is the great enemy.  To conquer FEAR you have to take action, go for it and keep trying.  Claim your right to be free of FEAR as FEAR is a product of your imagination causing you to see and hear things that are not present or real.