By Kolten Smith –
Every week at the Ranch, we have a staff meeting. This meeting generally includes what we must complete for the week and our next event. In addition, we usually have some time dedicated to improving ourselves personally and professionally. Recently, the topic has been about the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. I have only read the first few chapters, but something I read really resonated with me. Clear discussed how putting your system over goals is truly the best way to be successful. I agree with this 100%. In this blog, I will discuss how creating a strong system can lead you to great success.
System over goals is pretty simple. Essentially, it means creating a successful process and sticking to it. Over time, this process will lead you to achieve whatever goal you have in mind. Unfortunately, the process is simple but not easy. The hardest part of creating a great system is establishing good habits and eliminating bad ones. You see, habits are a double-edged sword—they can work for or against you. The good habits will build you up over time, and the bad ones will slowly bring you down. You must find a way to repeatedly do the good ones and limit the bad. For example, let’s just say you want to hit 90mph for the first time. This is the goal, but the system would be sleeping and eating well, doing your daily arm care, cycling your workload, and much more. All of these things are good “atomic” habits. They are all small parts of the puzzle, and, over time, they will compound into improvement. On the flip side, let’s just say someone had the same goal of hitting 90mph but didn’t consistently do all of those good habits. They do their drill work and arm care but don’t eat and sleep well consistently. Instead of their good habits all compounding, their good and bad habits fight each other. As a result, the improvement will be much slower and might not even happen at all.
That is not to say you have to be perfect, however. No one can have an absolutely perfect system. Sometimes, you’ll want to stay out late with your friends, or you don’t feel the best and thus skip a day of workouts. Nobody is perfect, and you should never put that expectation on yourself. However, ensuring these actions don’t become a habit is very important. Because if they do become a bad habit, then your goals will be much more complicated or even impossible to achieve.
Even though I said systems are more important than goals, goals are still important. They will guide your system and motivate you to proceed through the daily struggles. Most importantly, though, you can’t only focus on your goals. If you do, then you will probably not be very successful. One thing that stuck with me from the book is that every team in every sports league has the same theoretical goal: Win a championship. Not every team has the same amount of success, though. So, if the end goal were the most important thing, every team would succeed. However, they do not. The system is what separates each team from winners and losers.
Overall, if there were one thing that I would want you to get from this article, it would be to negate bad habits from your life. Although this is obvious and easier said than done, I encourage you to think of one bad habit you have and slowly phase it out. You will not see improvement towards your goal instantly, but over time, I promise that these bad habits you take out of your life will lead you to achieve more than you otherwise would have.
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Important TBR Updates
- ATTENTION Ranch Alumni: Early Bird Registration for the January Advanced/Alumni event ends TOMORROW! Only two spots remain for this camp. Don’t miss this once a year opportunity to work with Coach Brent Strom and Coach Flint Wallace in addition to your TBR team. To register CLICK HERE. For more information go to https://www.texasbaseballranch.com/events/alumni-pitchers-bootcamp/.
- ATTENTION CATCHERS – Limited spots (5) remain for our 6th Annual Elite Catchers Bootcamp Dec. 6-8 (ages 13 & up). For more information and to register go to www.TexasBaseballRanch.com/
catcher.
- Our Fall/Winter Elite Pitchers Bootcamps are filling up fast. Get your spot now for one of the upcoming dates! Please CLICK HERE to learn more and secure your spot.
Dates include:
Nov. 23-25 (SOLD OUT – Call to be placed on waitlist)
Dec. 28-30 (Space Limited)
Jan. 18-20 (MLK weekend)
Feb. 15-17 (President’s Day weekend)
- If you’re a local athlete and looking to make an impact for your team this Spring, reach out to us about our weekly training classes or private lessons. Call (936) 588-6762 or email AnnaDugger@TexasBaseballRanch.com. Space is limited!
- NEW VIDEO on our YouTube Channel: “Mastering the Pitcher’s Powertrain: Posterior Chain Secrets Revealed (Pt 4) ”. Watch it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMPX7bAp66M and share your opinion in the comments.
