It’s not what you think.  ;-).  But it does get the imagination going, doesn’t it?

I told you not long ago how I’ve become a big baseball fan (see Take Me Out To The Ball Game), resurrected from childhood by my dear, near-centenarian father-in-law.  He got me going on the San Francisco Giants on what has turned out to be a winning year for this team. Good timing.

And as timing would also have it, the World Series deciding game for the Giants was played last night, the night we arrived on a far-flung Caribbean Island for a couple of weeks of scuba and other bits of bouncing around on tropical beach.  For some reason locations 50 miles off the coast of Venezuela don’t have TV coverage of US baseball playoff games.  Go figure.

Which meant foraging for  game details on my laptop, and exhausted from 24 hours of travel, in bed, fighting sleep so we could catch the plays on “atbat.com”.  On “atbat”, you don’t see the action live, but rather get animated delay of plays with a text report on ball, strike, or ball in play message.   You know who’s at bat, but you don’t see the swing.  You know who’s on the mound, but you don’t see the pitch.  You know when the pitcher’s been changed, but you don’t see the nuance of the switch.  In other words, you see the benchmarks without the fluff (and fun or angst, depending) of the details of play.

Here’s the connection.  Though “highlights reporting” is perhaps  frustrating when watching a ball game, it is an important tool to moving your personal fitness success forward faster.

Keep up your practices but remember to take a step back from all the details so that you  see the prizes in the big picture.

Sometimes we can be so caught up in the details of our daily objectives, we don’t give enough recognition to the benchmarks that have already been met.  Checking in on our personal “at bat” successes delivers rich fare for self-confidence.  Images of my client’s successes, one after another, careened into my consciousness.

As you grow your own success, remember to reinforce yourself with recognition of goals achievement  Here are 2 specific ways to do just that.

1)  Take the time to check in the boxes of accomplishment. One of my clients, who first came to me several months ago, was struggling with sweets.  Specifically, her need for them.  She couldn’t go more than a few days without a treat, and it was sabotaging her weight loss, health, and just plain getting in the way of her body composition and energy goals.  Now, it’s been 2 months since “sweets” have been a problem for her, which she now notices almost anecdotally, forgetting what a reign of terror sweets had on her not many fortnights ago.   In her desire to  improve other areas of her fitness, she was undervaluing  the importance of this accomplishment.  Her “atbat” play box hadn’t been checked.

2)  Never underestimate the power of the pieces of change. Paym, another client, decided several months ago that she was going to become an active person by seeing herself as one and making the Bold Goal commitment of doing physical activity every day.  Well, it’s now been several months and her “active every day” winning streak continues.  Still, she admonishes herself for every less-than-perfect workout, every dip in workout enthusiasm.  Yet she has effectively become an active person.  She’s also lost 20 lbs.  Can you image the differences in her life over one year, two?  This piece of change is life altering.  Yet it’s easier for her to notice the distance she yet needs to cover than to celebrate the amazing changes she’s made to becoming an active person.

It’s somehow far more common for women to worry about where they need to go than it is to celebrate how far they’ve come.  Yet seeing yourself as a person who is successful in your endeavors is what it’s all about.  When we see ourselves as successful, we inevitably enjoy more of same.  This is one of the greatest values of working with a coach.  They provide guidance and provide inspiration and insight, while at the same time shining light on our wins.

What are your wins that need recognition?  Tell me about them in comments below.