Last summer I watched an 11-yr-old #athlete cheering on her teammates, while being benched during the entire tournament. She kept a brave face, hi-5ed her teammates & responded respectfully to her coaches & she kept her composure - until she got into the car and burst into tears. Even though I have never played softball, I know how she felt, & I felt it more deeply because she was my daughter. I let her cry out her frustration & disappointment & then (even thru some tears) we came up with a plan! :-) We pinpointed the actual problem & identified the specific & effective set of solutions. We divided the solutions into 4 parts, and over the course of the next week, we had scheduled those parts into a monthly calendar - and the girl got to work! 2 months later, as she continued to work through the structured solutions we had devised together, the athlete was off the bench, had moved up the batting order AND pitched an entire game! Yesterday she showed me a piece she had written for a school assignment on 'analogy' called "Life is Like a #Softball Game." I share a part of it w/ her permission, as a reminder to whoever is reading this, that it does not take months or years to reboot your #empoweredmindset; it takes a shift & some structure & you are on your way, my friend!
