ONLY THE ESSENTIAL

Discover the "essential" recipe that the best hitters and high-achievers utilize to outperform the masses -- a potent two-step prescription for sustainable success in the batter's box and beyond. 

Transcript

One of the defining characteristics of greatness is being able to identify what is essential to your pursuits. Amateurs tend to suffocate in the non-essential while professionals cut away the excess in their lives… and isolate that which is a priority to their success and fulfillment. The author Greg McKeown wrote a fantastic book called “Essentialism. The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” which explores the idea of becoming an Essentialist… and removing that which is not essential from your pursuits. 

I introduced this idea to my big league hitters a few years ago, buying them the book and utilizing its teachings in our hitting sessions during the offseason.  

Here is what we found together: 

The movement from “mediocre to good” comes from the identification of THE ESSENTIALS in one’s hitting game. 

And then the transformation from “good to great” comes from a hitter’s ability to commit fully to those ESSENTIALS — placing them at the epicenter of their life. 

That’s a simple two-step process for hitting success.

Step one: Identify what is essential. 

Step two: Honor those essentials. 

And the reality is that VERY LITTLE is essential. We live in an age where we spend so much of our time navigating the constant noise coming at us from 360 degrees… that we can’t filter out the important information from all the nonsense. 

Experts call this “decision fatigue.” 

So we subsequently get swept up in a world of constant busyness. 

And we begin to believe that BUSY is actually BETTER. 

But in reality… the best… do LESS… much BETTER than the rest of us.

They know how to lock on to the crucial parts of their existence. They magnify them and allow them to blot out all the senseless busyness that most of us lose ourselves in. 

For instance…

What if I told you…

Your hitting world is filled with 80% noise. 

And only 20% of what you are doing actually matters?

Back in 1906, my fellow Italian Vilfredo Pareto, developed THE PARETO PRINCIPLE. Simplified for this discussion, the principle states that 80% of your results are dictated by 20% of your efforts. So 20% of what you are doing on a daily basis is creating 80% of your results.

So hitters… 20% of your work is likely responsible for the majority of your production. 

So basically the other 80% of your efforts are empty… or even worse… detracting from the fruits of the essential 20%!

So that’s our first job. 

Identify that 20%… by asking the question:

WHAT IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR HITTING SUCCESS?

What are the vital parts that comprise your positive production?  

Hitters MUST be very clear on what aspects of their hitting world are responsible for their highest performance. When you can identify those areas… then you can commit to them fully. 

And when you can do THAT… you have just moved yourself into a very select group of hitters on the planet. Because most hitters aren’t really sure what makes them good and why. They don’t know what’s important to their success. So they spend countless hours scurrying down rabbit holes and chasing misinformation… and getting lost in all that ever-present noise. 

So let’s bring your essentials to the forefront of your hitting life. So you can make them your priority and begin to allow production to flow at a much higher rate. 

If you aren’t sure what is essential to your hitting success. If you can’t find that choice cut of filet mignon — then start by identifying the FAT.

It’s an easier task than you think…

You do this with your swing, right? 

You continually identify the movements that are NOT necessary to your swing success. You remove that which DOES NOT MATTER. The best swings are lean and dangerously efficient. No wasted movement. Deadly in their simplicity and repeatability. 

Your entire hitting life MUST mirror that of a high-octane, ultra-efficient baseball swing.

So what does FAT look like? 

— Fat is playing five hours of Call of Duty… when an hour would have provided the proper relaxation and disconnect you needed.

— Fat is scrolling on your phone for 75 minutes… when you had simply intended to hop on and check the weather for tonight’s game.

— Fat is aimlessly hitting in the cage day after day… without a well-devised routine, objective or battle plan. 

— Fat is going out every night with your teammates and neglecting your off-the-field obligations. 

Still not sure?

Look at it this way. 

An army can only travel as fast as its slowest soldiers. The entire army is held up by the scuffling infantrymen in the far back. The army can’t proceed too far ahead, if it is continually having to slow down for their slowest members to regain pace. 

Who and what are the slowest soldiers in your life? 

What is slowing you down?

Who is unnecessarily occupying your valuable time? Who or what is draining your advancement and stealing your focus? 

As the renowned business thinker Stephen Covey once said: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”

So eliminate that which is not ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY! Cut out the fat!

And soon you’ll discover the non-negotiables in your hitting life… those things that represent the absolute PILLARS of your performance. 

Get quiet. Find space. Sit in stillness for a while. 

And allow your essentials to rise up into your awareness. 

Trust yourself. 

You know. 

The majority of you have been hitting since you were four years old. You’ve built a near bullet-proof hitting gut inside yourself.

Trust it. 

And let it tell you what MUST BE HONORED in order to be your best self. Essentials can be categorized… you can have your swing essentials, your mindset essentials, your training essentials, your pre-game essentials… whatever buckets you need. 

But for now we will work in broader strokes.

Perhaps a few of your hitting essentials may look like this:

—  Only take cage/BP swings with deliberate intent and a defined plan. 

— Spend at least one night a week doing something non-baseball related to maintain positive life balance.

— Visualize at bats against tomorrow’s starter for 10-minutes before bed and again for ten-minutes upon rising.

— Stay connected to loved ones no matter what the hitting performance looks like from day to day. 

— Compete with a serious calm at the plate through a daily mindset routine. 

— Get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep whenever possible.

And… speaking of sleep…

The late K. Anders Ericsson, former professor at my esteemed Alma mater Florida State University was founder of the 10,000 hour rule on elite performance… He did a famous study that proved the value of deliberate or “essential” practice in the world’s finest violinists. 

But the second revealing factor in that study which turned out to be… you guessed it… sleep. 

The best violinists slept an average of 8.6 hours a night. That’s an hour more than the rest of us be average. But something even more interesting was that over the course of a week they also averaged 2.8 hours of naps in the afternoon. That’s 2 hours more than the rest of us. 

You see, that extra sleep allowed them to regenerate and practice with greater concentration. 

As Greg McKeown would say, the violinists knew how to: PROTECT THE ASSET. 

You are the asset, folks. 

But you don’t need academic research studies to identify what is ESSENTIAL to you. Nobody knows YOU better than YOU. But you have to put the time in to identify those highly personal essentials. 

There is no magic behind greatness. 

The best hitters in the world engage their highest point of contribution by rigorously identifying their essentials! This doesn’t take special talent or unique gifts.

It simply takes the will to be aware of what matters most to YOU. 

So start identifying. No excuses. 

That is STEP ONE. 

Now on to step two… you’ve identified the ESSENTIALS… but that is worthless if you aren’t able to circle the wagons, place them in the center of your hitting life and EXECUTE on each of them. 

So we know what is important to us, we know the steps that will bring us success at the plate. 

How do we honor them? 

How do we make sure we are getting that time to decompress after a game? How can we be certain we can grab that 8.5 hours of sleep on an off day? How do we protect that 20 minutes of pregame solitude? 

It’s not as hard as you think. 

You can secure those things by learning how to use one little two-letter word…

NO!

The best among us say NO with far more frequency than the masses. We live in a world with constant distractions, constant demands on our time and energy. 

So if you want to immediately improve your performance and quality of life?

Then learn to say NO… firmly and respectfully… to ANYONE or ANYTHING that does not align with your essentials! 

When the noise comes knocking — selling you something you don’t need or want — then do what the best do and let that two-letter word flow forth with clear intention:

NO.

Because every time you fail to do so…

You are saying YES to distraction and fat and mediocrity. 

You are opening the door and inviting them all inside. 

And you wonder why you can’t find consistency as a hitter? Start saying NO consistently… without apology. After all, you are honoring what is most important to you! 

Saying a hearty NO is the battle cry of the best.  

The top achievers in the world have mastered this. They literally refuse to be bothered with anything that does not fall in the category of INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT TO ME. 

So they can tell that friend who happens to be in town… No, sorry I can’t meet for coffee tomorrow morning — I have to get my full pre-game routine done. But maybe next time! 

OR

They can tell their agent — Sorry, no. I can’t do that unscheduled appearance for you today. I am having lunch with my girlfriend (or my wife or my kids).

OR

Sorry, no. I won’t be able to meet for drinks tonight. I need to do my visualization work and get a full night’s sleep. 

OR

No thanks… as much as I’d love to check out that new release on the PS5 this afternoon — I need to prepare for my finals so I have a clear mind heading into this weekend’s rivalry series. 

Remember that when we say NO to the non-essential…

We say YES to what matters most to us. (And this doesn’t mean that there isn’t a day where your friend calls and you feel like grabbing that cup of coffee because staying connected to friends and family is essential to you. And today THAT is most important. )

But Athletes tend to think they can do everything! All the time! We can get it all in — that long cup of coffee with a buddy AND the full pre-game routine.  

But we can’t. 

And we waste tremendous amounts of energy thinking about how to get it all in… and then trying to make it all happen. 

Saying NO shows we are honoring our deepest commitments to ourselves. It’s our way of maintaining course and keeping the main things in our life… well… the main damn things. And once we do that… we have made it easier to do it again and again and again. And we have also informed the world — that we will not deviate over its distractions. 

A different way to look at this as a hitter… is that most athletes usually don’t have an issue saying YES: to another round of flips, to another set of sprints, to another bucket of ground balls, or to get in an extra workout before you have to leave for your flight. 

Because Athletes believe MORE is always better! 

But more of what exactly? 

Are those two hours spent obsessing over video of your game swings really ESSENTIAL at 11:30 at night? 

Is it ESSENTIAL to work off the slider machine for another six rounds chasing a feel you had two months ago? 

Is this clearly the best use of your time and energy? 

Or are you just falling into the default mode of most athletes… where doing anything MORE is seen as productive. And BETTER!

Be deliberate and one-pointed in your decision making. 

And ask yourself the only question that really matters…

Is this the most important thing I can be doing RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW? 

If it is — by all means — then stay with it. 

If not? 

Get back to the business of the non-negotiable.

And the best way to create true momentum in this area is to devise well-crafted routines that embody your essentials. This way you can begin to live by a built-in system that runs itself, allowing you to avoid all those non-essential pitfalls and distractions. I’ll speak more in depth on routines in an upcoming episode — but for now, get those routines up and running, filled to the brim with the essential components of your hitting life. 

And watch how mediocrity fades into your rearview. 

Because this REALLY is the best one-two punch in a hitter’s proverbial repertoire. 

Identify what is essential to you. 

And… 

Honor it at all costs. 

It’s the simplest success recipe you can possibly find. 

So choose the filet. And leave all the fat behind.