Home Runs vs Base Hits

Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds Babe Ruth, Alex Rodriguez. When I say those names, what should come to mind is homeruns in baseball, right?

Those are the top four players in baseball history to have amassed the greatest number of career home runs. It's impressive, it's incredible in fact, when you think about what those men have done in the sport of baseball.

And as entrepreneurs, we're particularly drawn to that kind of thing. The home runs, the gold medals, the Super Bowls, the big wins, and we do that too, don't we? We go for the home run, we swing for the fences almost every day.

Well, today I want to talk about your health and fitness, in this context. If you're in the second half of life, like I am, I want to tell you that if you're not focusing on hits, versus home runs, life is going to show up in a very disappointing manner sooner or later.

You see lots of times we as entrepreneurs think that we can save the day with our home runs. We've done it many times in business. We've learned how to swing for the fences in every effort. And what comes with that oftentimes is we neglect… we allow our business to hijack our life and we neglect ourselves. Which is a very, very devastating problem over time.

So what do you do? Well, my advice to you is to swing for the hits, not swing for the fences. Now that's counterintuitive, might even say it's blasphemy, but when it comes to your health, swing for the hits, not the fences.

You might be saying to me, “Oh, but I don't have time to work out, I don't have time to exercise, I don't have time to eat right. I don't have time to have fun, I don't have time to invest in new adventures and new learning. I don't have time to________”

Let's fill in the blank and put as its definition, take care of our health, take care of our longevity, take care of our future. You see, no matter how much money you make, and you know this, no matter how much money you make, no matter how many deals you close, no matter how many clients you serve, at the end of the day, if you're not healthy enough to enjoy it, then it doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter.

So what do we do? Well, we have to counter, we have to resist the temptation to only swing for the fences. I'm not saying don't swing for the fences. But what you should absolutely make as a rule of thumb for every single day of your life as soon as you wake up, to look for places to make a hit when it comes to investing in your longevity and your health.

Swing for the hits. What does that mean? It means taking a few extra steps. When you drive up or you're pulling your driveway after a meeting, get out of the car and walk around the block before you walk inside your home. How about on the way upstairs at night before you go to bed, you walk upstairs twice or three times instead of just once to crawl into the bed?

Of course we've heard all of this… How about if you take the stairs versus the escalator, park in a place that's across the parking lot not the first one that's the closest. And yes, of course stop by and do a quick jog on the treadmill for 15 minutes. You see something is better than nothing. And over time they hits win the game way more than the home runs. Never was there a game that wasn't first one on hits. And then one on home runs if that was even the case.

So if you're in the second half of life, and you're an entrepreneur, go ahead swing for the fences and I hope you hit a Grand Slam. But also today, start keeping track of your hits.