T-P-T-M

I love watching baseball, baseball at any level.  One of my favorites is the College World Series.  There are so many stories within the game.  One year, many years ago, there was a player who was facing a team coached by his own father.  This of course had the potential for a lot of distraction.  In an effort to keep his focus on the game, and more importantly on his role in the game, he wrote the letters T-P-T-M on his bat.  It stood for This Pitch This Moment. I always thought it took a mature thought process to come up with that.  In an interview, he explained that his goal was to only concentrate on one pitch at a time during the game.  He said he couldn’t control what had happened on the previous pitch anymore than he could predict what would happen one pitch from now.  He could only control how he responded to what happened one pitch at a time.  His goal was to focus on This Pitch This Moment. Even as a young man of probably 20 or 21 years old he knew the simple fact that he couldn’t change the past, and while he could maybe plan for the future, he certainly couldn’t control it.  The only thing he could do is be prepared to respond to the moment at hand, one pitch at a time.

I think it’s a great lesson for all of us.  I have a bat with the letters T-P-T-M written across it that I used to use as a teaching aid when I coached little league baseball.  I also use it sometimes when I have a speaking engagement.  This lesson can be applied to how we choose to respond to a lot of the moments we have on a daily basis.  Next time you find yourself dwelling on the past or worrying about something in the future maybe try focusing on one pitch at time – This Pitch This Moment.