Be the ball
It’s easy to lose focus and spend time on unimportant tasks.
That’s why it’s critical to be the ball.
During little league baseball games, I would stand in the batter’s box, dig my heel in and, while waiting for the pitcher to get the catcher’s signal of what pitch to throw, I’d often hear my coaches yell to me,
“Be the ball.”
That was a signal to block everything else out, focus on the path of the ball coming towards me, and react accordingly by either swinging the bat with intention or taking the pitch.
In either case, I’m reacting with purpose and not leaving the moment up to chance.
Now, I was a little leaguer over 30 years ago, and that was probably the last time that I heard that be the ball phrase uttered…
…until my book boudoir session with Rachel DeAlto’s book, Relatable.
The goal for creating visual assets of her book was similar to each book photo session: create a series of cover and spine photos as well as inside page images to create a portfolio of images that can be used to promote not only the book, but her relationship-driven expertise, in general.
Once I found myself flipping through the pages and identifying elements within her book to photograph, I came across this Be The Ball section header.
Immediately, I smiled and knew this one was calling me to photograph it.
The cool thing about shooting content within a book is that it’s hard to pick something wrong.
They’re all good choices because the author purposefully included that insight in there for a reason.
And since this short and sweet phrase had personal significance to me, it was a no-brainer to stage the book and prepare to shoot it for her image portfolio.
While introduced to this phrase many moons ago, it now resonates with me on an even deeper level today.
As a business owner, it’s critical that I constantly Be The Ball - focus on what’s important, and block out everything else that doesn’t serve me at that moment.
Some days, it’s automatic.
Other days, not so much.
But, regardless of the difficulty level, it’s a task that I take very seriously in order to maintain productivity and positive, forward momentum.
Being able to compartmentalize whatever crap is going on in my life in order to complete a task with speed and quality is a never-ending goal with everything I do in my business and life.
And that’s why this Be The Ball photo lives in print on my wall in my apartment along with several other meaningful book photo quotes.
It serves as a constant reminder that regardless of the state of the world around me, I need to narrow my gaze onto what’s important in the moment and get the damn thing done.
Thanks for the reminder, Rachel - it’s been a big help 🙂