Powerful thinking

So, I don't know how many of you follow the Red Sox, but my husband and I are pretty avid watchers. Some of you may have noticed how "off" David Ortiz has been lately - he's normally the powerhouse (well, one of them) of the team, known to pull through and hit home runs precisely when the team needs it most. However, since the start of baseball season a few weeks ago, he's been in a huge slump - hitting something like 0.070, or 3 hits out of 41 at-bats. Pretty stinky for any ballplayer, let alone Big Papi.

There was an article on boston.com today about Papi's sluggish performance - Francona pulled him out of the lineup for last night's game, even, which is pretty unheard of for this guy. Yet when Ortiz was asked to comment on his inability to hit well, here's what he was quoted as saying (as well as what the author wrote):

"It happens," Ortiz said with a shrug. "It happened to me before," alluding to a situation back in 2003, before he became a megastar.

Rather than prepare himself to face young Phil Hughes, Papi went to work with batting coach Dave Magadan. Somehow or other, the two must find a solution.

"You know, just trying to figure things out for a minute so I can go back to being Big Papi," Ortiz said.

In my mind, what stands out about this is how relaxed Ortiz is about his recent downturn. One of the things I've been trying to work on with my anxiety issues is how to STOP OBSESSING about every little detail; I'm sick and tired of replaying all my failures in slow-mo, over and over again. And this includes tiny, obscure little "failures" as well! Yet here we have this multi-million dollar baseball player, whose SOLE JOB IT IS TO HIT BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE, and when he fucks up he merely states, "it happens." And I think that's great. I think more of us should learn how to see the problem for what it is and then let it go. I want to learn to trust that a) things are not as big of a deal as I make them out to be, and b) even they are a big deal, is it really that consequential? I mean, even the best hitters have slumps, even the best hitters have to practice day in and out at their craft. So why do I give myself such a hard time when I don't perfectly succeed at every little thing?

This is going to be my new mantra: It happens. And I'm going to shrug when I say it, just like Big Papi.