Stock Doc: Don't Aim, Just Throw the Ball!

John had been struggling within the last three months to break out of what he referred to as "a plateau phase" in his business. He was stuck, analyzing everything that he was doing wrong and obsessing over it even when he came home to his wife at the end of the day.

John was caught in a very common mental trap that was made worse by his propensity to be too analytical. He was essentially in a brain freeze that rendered him unable to perform at an optimal level. His diagnosis was behavioral paralysis.

Little League Lessons

When I was 12 years old, I pitched for a team in my local Little League, the D'Agostino Blue Jays. I was admittedly a wild southpaw, but I did throw with decent velocity for my age. Currently an outfielder in a semiprofessional baseball league, I will never forget my days of pitching out of some pretty bad jams.

I was really hard on myself when I wasn't throwing strikes. To this day, I can still hear the voice of my coach reverberating through the air. He would yell at me after every wild pitch to "Stop aiming the ball! Just throw it to the glove!"

I emerged from childhood emotionally unscathed from my coach's constant yelling at me. In fact, I learned to adopt this mind-set for tackling almost every obstacle that I faced, whether at work or in the competitive sports arena.