Motivation and Standing Out
I remember a reading a quote a while back that made a really huge impression on me. It was in the context of baseball and getting yourself motivated to play every night, but the more I think about it, the more it applies to anything in life.
For years I thought it was from Ted Williams, but I’m thinking I was wrong on that count, since I couldn’t find the quote anywhere. I did find something similar that Joe DiMaggio once said though:
There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time, I owe him my best. —Joe DiMaggio
I’m still convinced Ted Williams said something even more on point than that, but I just can’t seem to find it, despite my enviable Google talents.
Here is one from hockey great Wayne Gretzky that touches on this same idea:
…every night, somebody in the stands is seeing you for the first time, and somebody is seeing you for the last time. And you wouldn’t want to disappoint either one. —Wayne Gretzky*
How it Applies to You
So you aren’t a professional athlete, so what? You can still use this advice in your own life. For me, it helps to visualize someone actually sitting down and reading what I’m writing for the first time, or (gulp) the last time.
They’re going to make their mind up to come back (or not) and read more of what I’ve written based on this one article. It’s a tremendous amount of pressure, but it’s good pressure.
It makes you weed out the mediocre. It makes you really think about everything you’re doing because if you decide to be lazy on any given day (we’ve all been there), then this one person is going to think, “Oh, this person is a lazy writer” or “This is boring, I don’t like it.”
And they won’t come back.
I love this kind of advice and if anyone finds a creative way of linking it to their own life, I’m all ears.
* I found this here, by the way
Photo by Joyosity. And by the way, that’s the Ted Williams seat in Fenway Park
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:05 am
This is a wonderful philosophy, and not just for work. In our interactions with friends, acquaintances, strangers, and family this applies; some of these people are meeting us for the first time, and some may be seeing us for the last. If we all were more cognizant of that, maybe our interpersonal relations would be a little better.