Covering the Bases of Success

In baseball, you have to touch all 4 bases to score.

It’s the same with getting results in career and business.

You only get wins on the board when you cover all the bases.

Stepping up to ‘bat’ requires a clear focus . Before you do anything else, you must know what you are on a mission to accomplish. A clear sense of what’s possible is required before you take a swing and without it, the game has no purpose. With it, you’re ready to run the bases.

The bases of success are:

1. Knowing why you want it in the first place. When you have tapped into the bigger why of things, you’ve actually tapped into the motivation and power source that will fuel you.

2. Knowing who you are and who else you need to engage. It starts with you. Knowing who you are and the best way for you to go about things is priority 1. Then it’s about figuring out who else you need on your team to carry out your mission.

3. Knowing how to achieve the goal. This is about knowing how to take the right sequence of steps. It’s not just about mastering ‘tactics’ and amassing information. It’s about having the strategy, plan and competence to achieve your goals.

4. And then, of course, there’s the actual doing of it—results are a product of taking focused, confident and courageous action. Doing what it takes to carry out your mission and overcoming obstacles, fears, resistance and doubt along the way. Sometimes you don’t score, and have to take another turn at bat.

Sounds simple enough, so why does it seem so hard to achieve the kind of success that feels great and makes a real impact?

Sometimes it’s a lack of focus. I’ve seen many bright people get stuck at home plate—spending lots of time dreaming up possibility after possibility but never taking it a step further. They never actually swing. Maybe they are afraid of striking out. Or they are waiting for the ‘just right’ idea or opportunity. And so they sit there waiting, letting opportunity after opportunity pass by.

Other times it’s because we’re searching for the shortcut. As I see it, far too many people get stuck running around hitting only one or two of the bases and never actually get the results they desire.

Lots of folks get head straight for 3rd base—skipping all the other bases to focus on gathering ‘know how’ and hoping that just hitting that base will be enough. It’s not.

Or they go through the motions of running the bases, but they fail to connect with each—they aren’t committed to the game they are playing, they operate without a plan, they haven’t really engaged themselves or others in a meaningful way or they don’t take consistent action. All this amounts to lots of running around, but not much scoring.

See, in life, as in baseball, there are no success shortcuts. You’ve got to run all the bases and keep at it until you score.

This week’s coaching challenge:

If you find that you have a goal, a dream or a vision that isn’t coming together, it’s time for an honest self assessment.

1. First, check in with yourself and make sure you are clear on what your mission is and that it’s a game worth playing.

2. Then look at your pattern. Which base tends to trip you up?

• Do you lose motivation somewhere along the way? Perhaps you need a clearer sense of why this is worth pursuing and dig deep to find the drive to get you going again.

• Do you find you get overwhelmed with all there is to do? Maybe it’s time to look at who else you need to engage to help you along.

• Do you avoid having a strategy or plan? Write down a simple one page plan that spells out how you’re going to get there and make it a habit to check in with it once a week or once a month. Plans ground you and keep you focused.

• Or do you get stuck just gathering know-how, but not implementing anything? Shift from information seeking to action taking. Declare one day this week as your ‘take action’ day and see how great it feels to implement.