No Place to Hide

Senior year of college was the first year that the NCAA instituted the uniform start date to the baseball season in an effort to keep universities in mild climates, like Southern California, from having the advantage of playing the first month or more of the season at home, while the cold weather schools started their entire season on the road looking for playable conditions. With the same amount of games in less time, the 2008 season included many weeks with five games. I feel like I was in town to attend class just a handful of days that March.

In short, the capstone class in the leadership school where I’d earn a minor degree occurred at an impossible time for my baseball schedule. I was fortunate that my dear friend and coach, Dr. Cara Miller, went to bat for me and created an independent study with her.

While my academic career was successful on paper, it wasn’t because I use highlighters and studied all night. This arrangement would test me. I’d be taking the course sitting across from my professor’s desk with no place to hide.

The results were immediate and remarkable. I got an A. While that wasn’t out of the ordinary for me, things change when you get assigned reading and you’ll be the only person in class to discuss it the next day.

Embarrassingly, this independent study forced me to do what I wouldn’t do otherwise. I’d never read the way I read in that class and my life would never be the same again. I have read three books (or so) at a time ever since and it’s changed the entire trajectory of my mind. Essentially, not only did I get results, I got more results than I even knew were possible. Having no place to hide showed me an entirely new gear I didn’t know I had. Being forced into a corner like this made me shift gears.

You have another level you just don’t know how to tap into it. There’s another gear inside of you that, without anything extra, can shatter any perception of what’s possible. Meanwhile, we are chronically misinterpreting the point of life as to minimize stress and seek comfort, yet all the while we want change.

The adaptation you want, in whatever lane of your life you might be seeking it, will be driven by stress. Remember, seeking comfort and wanting change are opposing desires. An easy way to reconcile this mismatch is to force yourself into a corner. Leave no other option but results.

What’s a corner of intense accountability that you can implement right now to exceed your desired results?

 

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach