A conversation for high school aged future leaders

A conversation for high school aged future leaders that discusses the importance of creating sustainability through finding their values, being involved in team sports concepts, exploring their spirituality, and finding ways to use their business ideas to generate positive change for the future. These concepts are explored from 9 fundamental truths that will help them define who they are and what they are capable of from their internal beliefs and how those can be used in the outside world.

Introduction

“Never allow the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.”

Babe Ruth

We love baseball because it’s the ideal sport to encompass a great many lessons for life, reasons for doing what we do, and being a part of a community. All these areas are important; they make up the home run of your life. They mean you will swing and miss at times, but you keep moving forward and doing your best, hoping you didn’t twist around so hard that you land on your butt. But if that were to happen, you get back up, dust yourself off, and keep on moving forward. Then laugh because let’s face it, that would be funny to see.

No matter what age you are, there is something you can do, big or small, to become a difference maker in your community or any area that compels you to step in and help it in some meaningful manner. It feels amazing to know that you can be spiritually aware in our world, connected to causes and purposes greater than ourselves, that make us better as a result. Wow, that was a mouthful, but it needed to be said!

Again, it comes back to baseball, the perfect representation of human potential and collaboration. There has never been a more in sync sport for combining your personal efforts and initiatives with the nuances of functioning as a part of a team. This also happens to complement life’s experiences quite well, starting with where you are at internally, who you are as a person. Knowing this leads to the best ideas, initiatives, and results in the world around you. Exploring what these things are is part of the joy of life; it gives your pursuits their purpose and that is impressive. It allows you to be agile and nimble, which happen to be the best types of leadership styles out there because they focus on an integrated approach that integrates values, business, spirituality, and sports concepts. All these things are relayed with individual expression, while being attentive to the needs of the team. Just like baseball pitcher Johnny Cueto’s trademark “shimmy.” Watch a video of it; it’s incredible to view and has proven itself to be super effective for his team, while remaining a unique characteristic of him.

We all have an opportunity to be effective and bring our best Johnny Cueto to the game. It can be hard to start and sometimes it’s tough to know when to quit but it is all worth it in this world of limitless possibilities and if you have the right mindset to embrace lifelong learning combined with practice and application in the world that exists beyond the classroom exciting results will come along. Basically, it starts with a person and catches fire to encompass an entire team, whether it’s a business team or a baseball team. We all need coaches, teammates, and fans. The fans are equally important because we all need someone to cheer us on at times.

Memories are built on playing catch in the yard.

Think about it. Kids in impoverished countries play baseball because it is one of the only affordable pastimes available for them. Kids in neighborhoods around the world gather in their communities to play the game with each other, along with all the banter, practice, and creativity that comes with the sport. Its rules may be definitive but what it leads to makes for some of the most epic stories you’ll ever see in this world. Movies like The Sand Lot showed how baseball brought everyone together for great adventures. It takes no more than watching Field of Dreams to see the passion that comes from the game and how much demanding work one will do to bring the game to life. I can honestly say that there has never been a baseball movie that didn’t teach something of value to someone, no matter how silly or serious it was. The sports messages are powerful. Because of this, the catalyst for everything that is important to know can be experienced through playing out nine innings of baseball. A game of baseball is better therapy for the mind and body than just about anything else.