be the hammer

“Don’t Think, It Only Hurts the Ballclub.”

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60. “Don’t think, it only hurts the ballclub.”

Let’s set the scene. In the 1988 classic movie Bull Durham the character Crash Davis played by Kevin Costner is acquired by a minor league baseball team (The Durham Bulls) to groom a hot new prospect into becoming a major leaguer. His assignment, Ebby “Nuke” LaLoosh, has a million dollar arm but a five cent head. Nuke continues to sabotage himself by always over analyzing everything and in doing so constantly making a disaster of his situation. Realizing this, Crash offers him some words of advice, “Don’t think, it only hurts the ballclub.”

We all know people who rehash everything over and over to try and make sure they have covered every possibility and outcome. They ask everyone for their advice on the situation and then pose other possible scenarios for you to respond to. They run every possibility out to its full outcome, buying books on the subject and doing their research on the internet. Setting up pros and cons outlines for every decision they need to make, thereby limiting the probability of making the wrong choice. Then what do they end up doing the majority of the time? They have over thought the situation so badly they make the wrong decision or no decision at all. You also know right off the bat if you are a person who falls into this dilemma.

If you find yourself in this manic mentality, my suggestion is to just stop over thinking everything and simply start letting things happen. You also need to understand that if you make a mistake, it is part of the process of success and that the most successful people fail the most as well. When you stop over thinking and just start doing, you achieve that state known as “the zone.” Athletes know this mental state all too well, because when you are in it you can do no wrong. You are running on automatic pilot. When you ask people how they achieved a particular win in this state, they will tell you they have no idea, they were just “in the zone.” So if you are one of these people who over thinks things to the point that no one will even discuss it with you, use this Tool and don’t think, cuz you’re only hurtin’ the ballclub.

Don’t Major In Minor Things

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1. Don’t major in minor things.

How many people do you know who have a Bachelors degree in minor things? It’s no wonder people claim they don’t have enough time these days. What a waste to spend a large amount of time or energy on something that doesn’t warrant it. Just think about how silly that even sounds. By spending an inordinate amount of time and energy on something that doesn’t need it, you are depriving time for the major things that need that effort. In addition, by spending so much effort on minor things, it makes the major things just look that much more major. When you practice this Tool, it is one that is easy and comes on fast. Pretty soon you will take a quick pause before a problem occurs and figure out what category it belongs in, thus allowing more time for bigger/major challenges which in turn don’t seem as major and are resolved more quickly due to freed up time to tackle them.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and It’s All Small Stuff, is a great book by Richard Hyperion. Okay, maybe it’s not ALL small stuff, but think about all the small things we make such a big deal over. When I first heard this, I discovered that when you start making a big deal out of little things, you start making a big deal about everything. Another problem with making a big deal out of everything: others don’t know what is a big deal or what isn’t. When I started using this Tool, a couple of interesting things happened. First, I was able to separate the important from the not so important. Second, when I did call my shot about something important, others knew it was something important, because I didn’t make a big deal of EVERYTHING and what I got in turn were people helping me respond to the things that were IMPORTANT and needed to be addressed.

The Road To Success Is Always Under Construction

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Welcome to LanceCasazza.com and my weekly blog. I decided to start this site for three reasons. The first two are fairly obvious; to sell my book and increase my motivational speaking dates. The third and most important is to provide the public two blogs a week to help people raise their level of achievement and happiness each week. On Monday mornings I will be providing one tool from my book, Be the Hammer Not the Nail. This you will check each Monday and attempt to apply it for the coming week. The second blog will come out at lunch time each Wednesday. This is called “The Mid-Week Butt Kicking”, let’s kick butt by starting with your butt! This will be a fresh new blog of assorted topics for you to ponder in an attempt to help you finish the week strong. I hope you enjoy them and would love your feedback. Just an FYI, I am not “Mr. Perfect” and I will be attempting to do these right along with you. We are all hammers and nails at different points of our lives; the goal is to be a hammer as much as possible.

52. The road to success is always under construction.
Ah, how cute. One of my favorite Tools. Did the cover of the book not give that away? This was one of the first lessons I took to heart when I was dealing with my struggles in practice and in life. I was consumed with things that came up and needed to be completed. I was irked by all the things in my office that I wanted to do, long-term and short. I was constantly wondering when all these things on my list would diminish. As I finished one thing, another would pop up. When things were going great, then a new challenge to deal with would present itself. It seemed no matter what I did I was never caught up. There was constantly work that needed to be done, and I felt like no matter what I did it was never enough, and regardless of the effort new things would always be waiting for me around the corner. It weighed heavily on my mind to the point it was affecting my attitude and outlook on life. Then I was fortunate to stumble across this Tool, which in one moment put everything into perspective for me. When you are building your life, you are never done doing work. There are new areas to build and areas that will need repair from time to time. When you know that this is the case, it gives you a new way of viewing life and prepares you for what’s ahead. That’s why we have a blueprint in this book to develop plans for what the new areas call for in constructing our life.
You will remember when I was introducing Tools earlier in the book that I made the statement that some Tools can be considered power tools because of their ability to double up as an affirmation. This is a prime example of that premise. This Tool has so much power behind it, you can use it in the Tool section or as your affirmation. In fact, this was the first affirmation I used on my first blueprint. There are a number of the Tools that can be considered this way. There is no wrong answer. You enter a phrase in the affirmation section that you want to program into your subconscious mind. So I guess truthfully any of the Tools could be used in the affirmation section. But in the spirit of what we are looking for as an affirmation, this is maybe the best example of all the Tools; hence the nickname, a power tool.

When you read these Tools from my book there may be references to affirmations, blue prints, SANE, etc. These are all parts of the book and if they interest you I encourage you to buy it. With that said, there is no need to understand these book sections to gain benefit from the Tool. This was one of the first I really used when I got into “self-help” and found it made an immense difference in my life. So much so it is the sub title of my book. When I really started using it I found out I really relaxed about all of life’s challenges because they are just one part that occurs while building a life. By knowing that when one challenge is conquered another appears it isn’t as overwhelming because you know it is coming, in addition you give up the impossible search of the day that arrives with nothing to work on. Now go hammer the week!