When it comes to productivity and goal achievement, there's a lot of resources, books, and courses out there created by experts that you can invest in. What then separates Homerun Hope from the the countless others on this topic?
It's only here that your passion for the national pastime and your desire to be a productive, purpose-driven person are combined into one compelling narrative in which to view your life.
Over the next few months into the summer together I'll introduce you to each of the nine innings of productivity principles so you can win the game of life. Here's a preview of what we'll be discussing in the coming weeks:
The 1st Inning: Perspective
Your beliefs about yourself, others, and the world have a huge impact on how you live out your life. Your perspective when it comes to goals can be derailed due to limiting beliefs. Liberating truths, however, can set you free to reach your full potential with your productivity.
Possessing a winning mindset is critically important to your overall success in progressing well in the game of life. The 1st inning is where we'll set our sights on perspective.
The 2nd Inning: Planning
A common pitfall in the path towards making meaningful progress in life is failing to plan. As the saying goes, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Writing down your goal, creating action plans, and laying the groundwork for where you're headed to reach your desired destination is what the 2nd inning will be all about.
The 3rd Inning: Proactive
In baseball it's three strikes and you're out. For this game of productivity we're in, it's three innings and you're out---if you don't get proactive. While making plans is essential, you've got to step up to the plate and actually get into the game in order to reach your goals.
The 4th Inning: Practice
Baseball skills are built and strengthened through the daily grind of batting, fielding, and pitching practice. Likewise most goals are reached through the process of habit building. This is the paved path of progress that we'll take a look at in the 4th inning.
The 5th Inning: Probity
Right in the middle of the game, at the center of it all is perhaps the most overlooked aspect of the goal achievement process---who you becoming. Your accomplishments shouldn't be made so you can boast about what you've done.
On the contrary, the purpose behind everything you do is to build character. To become a person of integrity, love, and generosity. Ultimately it's who you become, not what you do that defines the legacy you leave in this game.
The 6th Inning: People
To play the game of baseball you need a team to fill out the nine positions. It's impossible to truly win a game without the help of others playing their parts together. An often made mistake in productivity and goal achievement is having the approach of doing it alone.
Within the context of goals, you need people for wisdom to equip the journey that lies ahead, for accountability when the barriers and challenges arise, and for daily encouragement when you feel like giving up. In the 6th inning we'll discover that accomplishing goals with others is far more enriching to your life than by yourself.
Inning 7: Play
Baseball is a game full of treasured traditions. At the top of the list is the seventh inning stretch in which fans get out of their seats and sing the song, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." For many fans, this reminds them of the simple days of innocence of their youth in playing the game. Of the joy and fun the game possesses.
In the goal achievement process, the concept of fun isn't emphasized much unfortunately. The view for most is that of the grind working hard day in and day out. So in the 7th inning we'll discover the incredible power of play and how it impacts our productivity.
Inning 8: Presence
Always maintaining focus and being aware of the current situation is critical for every player engaged in a baseball game. Knowing the count, the number of outs, the score, whose up to bat, where on the filed a hitter tends to hit balls at----could end up being the difference between a win or a loss for a ballclub.
As this game of life comes to a close, the question we need to ask ourselves is: are we fully present and making the most of our everyday experiences? Or are we going through the motions, ceasing to simply check off our to-do lists and call it a day?
For the 8th inning, we'll uncover what it means have presence when it comes to our pursuit of productivity.
Inning 9: Perseverance
At the end of a game in the 9th inning, either your team needs to record 3 more outs to secure a victory or fight back to overcome a deficit. The pressure is on to complete the mission, to succeed in bringing home the win.
Finishing strong with the goal achievement process is the hardest principle to master. It's so easy to limp to the finish line or give up altogether.
How do you remain steadfast and strong in the midst of the storms you'll inevitably face towards making meaningful achievements in this game of life? The 9th and final inning is where we'll uncover how to prevail to victory.
Putting Yourself in the Game
Each principle of an inning will be illustrated through the context of a key component(s) within the game of baseball. Stay tuned to discover what each one is in the next few months.
The purpose behind these upcoming blogs is to introduce you to the key concepts for each principle to lay the foundation of what Homerun Hope is all about.
In the fall season, we'll then begin to apply what we've learned with more specific, action-oriented articles that dig deeper into these principles.
One blog post will give an overview of each of the nine principles. Please join in getting in the game this summer. I can't for you to join me in playing out these nine innings of productivity principles! Now let's play ball!
Sources: All pictures courtesy of Unsplash.com