If you at all follow this blog, you know that I watch my fair share of sports and occasionally tie them into my blog posts. Anyone catch the performance of Madison Bumgartner of the San Francisco Giants? When I was talking to my nephew, Collin, on how to describe his performance, he said he went the extra mile for his team. Collin is usually a kid of many words and if I gave him time, he would have found many great ways to describe it.
Amazing! That is all I can say. I was listening to the radio on the way to a meeting and was listening to two sports minds discuss how easy it must be to bring your best and go that extra mile if you are in Game 7 of a World Series baseball game. They went on to say that this is the most abnormal situation that a pitcher will ever see and the best of the best go that EXTRA MILE for their team. Collin’s words exactly.
I would like to take a different avenue on this deal. Bumgartner is one of the best pitchers in the game. He brings it every day to the job. What he just accomplished is amazing, but he decides to go the extra mile each day of his life.
So I ask, don’t you think the amazing performance we saw on the baseball diamond was setup by the fact that he is a great performer at his job every day? I sure think so.
It drives me nuts to hear people talk about this performance as ‘easy to get up for’ to perform for the peak, most critical moments.
I have many things that I need to develop personally to be the person I want to be, but the thing I feel very good about is showing up to work to go that extra mile. I find it to be the one constant I can choose and it becomes the fabric of who you are.
In the chase of perfection, you will find that excellence follows. Go to YouTube and see Billy Bob Thorton’s definition of Perfection in Friday Night Lights. If that doesn’t hit home, I am sorry I wasted your time.
So, what do you think? Is there a huge difference of a baseball pitcher going the extra mile versus you or I deciding to do so for our team/business?
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