Baseball is a game of hope. Hope that comes every year during the eagerly awaited "Opening Day". It is that time of the year when baseball fans, players, and coaches alike are filled with excitement and anticipation for the start of a new baseball season.
Spring is in the air. After months of a long offseason in the midst of a bleak and cold winter, the first pitch on Opening Day signifies the beginning of what promises to be an exciting season ahead full of hopes and dreams of what could be. The possibilities seem endless. Nothing is impossible in theory for your favorite baseball team; even if expectations coming into the season are low.
Opening Day represents a fresh start and a new beginning. No matter how bad the season was before every player and team starts off with a clean slate. Players are ideally physically strong, healthy, and mentally at their best on Opening Day.
Everyone is at full strength and on an equal grounds in which the past is forgotten and the future looks bright. The grass is crisp green, the skies are clear blue, and the field is in perfect mint condition. It's literally a picture of heaven on earth!
Our New Seasons of Life
In many ways, New Year's Day can be seen as the Opening Day for our hopes and dreams of the upcoming year. It's when we set New Year's resolutions and goals towards losing weight, getting healthier, finding a new job, learning a new skill, getting out of debt, or going on our long-anticipated dream vacation.
Going beyond just New Year's Day, any new season of life can aspire us to dream big and set lofty goals for our future. We feel inspired and passionate about an improved version of what we long to see in our lives. A better, more promising tomorrow full of wild possibilities and potential bursting at the seams.
Deep within the human heart is the longing for redemption. For second chances. New beginnings. Fresh starts. It's wired in our very God-given nature.
This is why for many the start of a new calendar year, beginning a fresh year of school in the fall, or the first game of the season as an athlete is so thrilling to behold and savor.
As the famous quote that often ties in with the start of a baseball season goes, hope springs eternal. Even if the odds are against us, our past is full of failures, and our doubts creep in---we're choosing hope and optimism in light of a new day, a new season, and this new goal we're chasing after.
Days of Defeat
"Play Ball!" A new baseball season is underway and the first pitch is thrown. Many more follow. Outs are recorded, batters record hits, runs are scored, strikeouts are made.
Soon batting averages and pitcher's ERAs are no longer perfect. Fielders commit errors. And when the game is over....one team goes down in defeat.
Perfection is lost. Hopes are soon dashed. Expectations aren't met. Dreams aren't fulfilled. Injuries and bitter disappointments come crashing down. Reality soon sets in for each player and team.
Likewise in the pursuit of our goals our hopes and dreams, lofty expectations are met with failures and false starts. Defeat and discouragement quickly arise once the barriers, the difficulties, and the opponents to our dreams come about.
How quickly our optimism and joy turns to sadness and bitterness. Our perspective shifts from hope to despair. A once promising season that would bring victory after victory turns into dreary days of defeat.
So what comes as a result? A rapid decrease of a driving motivation to succeed no matter the difficulties that lie ahead. Passivity and lack of purpose eventually follow suit. At long last when all hope seems lost----we throw in the towel and call it quits on our goals.
In baseball this is called a "lost season." A season in which a player or a team simply can't get past their failures, the losses, and the setbacks. They're left aimlessly wandering game to game lifeless; already defeated before the first pitch is thrown.
Is there any hope to reach circle the bases and reach home plate with your goals? Is real, lasting change possible when we set goals or is it a mirage like the promise of Opening Day often is in the game of baseball?
I'm happy to say that yes there is hope! Let's explore briefly how this new movement of Homerun Hope seeks to bring home goal achievement to you.
Introducing Homerun Hope
What is Homerun Hope? It is an unique perspective of the goal achievement process through the lens of playing the game of baseball. Over time we'll uncover why baseball correlates directly with productivity, habit building, and pursuing goals.
When I discuss goals, I'm not necessarily referring to baseball--related or athletic goals as the focus here.
On the contrary, the emphasis here is ALL areas of goals we set in different seasons of our lives such as health, work, relationships, emotional well-being, finances, and spiritual growth.
The purpose behind the baseball-themed message is two-fold in nature:
To empower you to reach your goals by illustrating, inspiring, and instructing the goal-setting process in a fun, engaging manner by using baseball terminology, strategy, stories, and analogies.
To equip you to connect and enjoy the game of baseball on a deeper level as a fan, player, coach, or anyone directly involved in the national pastime.
The Vision
The vision for Homerun Hope is this:
The game of baseball itself is can be a fun, exciting sport to watch, discuss, read about, and study. But the most joy found in the game of course is actually stepping out on the field and playing it!
Similarity with the goal-achievement process it can be thrilling to read books about goals, feel inspiration by others who reached their goals, in writing down our goals, or planning out our goals down to the smallest detail.
Yet the most satisfaction is found in actually taking action and embarking into a season pursuing a goal!
Going beyond the safe comforts of the stands with countless fans who talk a good game but never dare to walk out on the field itself, to actually having the courage to cross over the white lines and step up to the plate for your biggest dreams.
Homerun Hope is here to help you get in the game with your goals and completing the season until you reach home plate having fulfilled your biggest dreams.
This is where you'll be provided the wisdom, inspiration, and tools towards a life that reaches your fullest God-given potential in productivity. Emphasizing small day-to-day progress over the pursuit of perfection. Where the power of play is a passion that prevails over passivity and procrastination.
Concluding Thoughts
The key takeaway I want you to remember with this introduction to Homerun Hope is that there is a way to move beyond Opening Day for your goals. That our hope is not in striving for perfection, the allusion within the game of baseball and your goal-achievement pursuit.
On the contrary, our hope is in getting back up in the batter's box after you've struck our with your goals time and time again. Being persistent and prevailing in the face of adversity and failure. Refusing to quit when the season you're in is relentlessly challenging, chaotic, and soul-crushing.
Every new day is a fresh, clean slate to start again. These seasons we embark on are journeys towards meaningful, lasting change. It's a commitment for the long haul; viewing life as a marathon, not a sprint.
It takes time, patience, and perseverance to win at life. To become a champion over the opponents of doubts, fears, and disappointments.
Hope does indeed spring eternal for those who acknowledge and take action past the allure of Opening Day. Let's step on the field and discover together here at Homerun Hope why there is hope for your biggest dreams in the coming weeks and months ahead! What a season lies in store for us! It's time to Play Ball!
What to Expect Moving Forward
As you probably will note, the Homerun Hope website is currently in beta/construction mode. I wanted to get this first blog post up by Opening Day for the baseball season but there's still a lot of things that aren't quite finished yet due to setbacks and complications.
Starting next week there's going to be two new blogs posts published every Wednesday and Friday. Wednesdays will feature a new Believeland Beat article. Fridays will feature a new 360 Journey article. All new and past blogs can be found on the Home Page of Homerun Hope.
Next week I'll unveil what Believeland Beat blog posts will be about along with the 360 Journey blog posts on their designated pages.
The About Page which will give more information about the vision, objectives, and features of Homerun Hope along with information about myself. It'll be published around mid-April.
A Resources Page is also in the works, set to be finished by the end of April.
The official full launch of Homerun Hope which will include a newsletter signup and a free giveaway is scheduled for mid-June. Official date to be announced later. Social media links for Homerun Hope will also be launched at this time. Stay tuned.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. Enjoy Opening Day weekend and Happy Easter!!
Pictures courtesy of Flickr.