Let the game come to you

I live here in Atlanta and I’m a huge baseball and football fan. The Atlanta Braves were doing well this year and were leading by 8½ games as of early September. It seemed like the playoffs were a sure thing! Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. They lost the advantage and the opportunity to play in the postseason.

Before the Braves’ demise was certain, Chipper Jones, who plays third base, said something to the team. Chipper is a 15-year veteran on the team and the young players look to him for advice, counsel and leadership. He commands a lot of respect and has proven to be a leader with his success story. At one of the team meetings, he said, “Hey guys, we’re trying too hard. You have to let the game come to you.”

I was intrigued that a baseball player, not a psychologist, would make such a comment. That is in line with my message: “When we let go, it flows.” The things you can’t see, hear, or touch often shape what becomes your reality.

So why is it so important that the game, your life or your work comes to you? There are several things that can happen as a result.

There’s a place for space

Letting the game come to you adds spaciousness to your mind and life. When you internalize the mantra “Let success come to you” or “Let wisdom come to you,” it adds space to your head. It allows you to lighten your load by stopping thinking “I have to figure this out” or “I have to get this done by the 15th of next month” or whatever it is that we insist and push. When you let things come to you, it opens up space for creativity, the emergence of wisdom, miracles, and dramatic insights. Add some space and let it come to you!

Fighting is stressful and suffocating

The spirit of what Chipper Jones was saying is that the harder his teammates tried, the more mistakes they made. You could tell when they got up to bat that they weren’t comfortable with themselves. They were struggling every time they thought, “I have to hit a home run.” They weren’t thinking about getting on base but how many runs they needed to score.

We do the same in our work and in our lives. Instead of taking one thing at a time, we focus too much on the end result and accomplish nothing. As that phrase goes “Inch for inch, it’s a doddle; mile for mile, it takes a while.” There is such deep truth in that simple statement! Relax in what you are doing and trust that you will have what you need. If you don’t have what you need, have faith that you will find what you need, or meet the right people, or develop a particular skill or strength to help you reach your goal.
If you let the game come to you, things will happen as they are supposed to, but as long as you fight, you will create stress. You will stifle your own creativity. So relax into your own inner wisdom.

serenity is achieved

That leads to the third result of letting the game come to you. Serenity is a natural byproduct. This is not talking about a passive serenity in which you sit at home hoping that everything will work out and take care of itself. This is the serenity that results from the prospect of what you are passionate about unfolding before your very eyes. You can be inspiring, passionate, successful AND have a calm, collected presence about you.

You will find that the answers, the truth, the people and the circumstances will follow you when you make room in your head and in your life. If you fight with that, you will stifle what needs to happen and block the serenity that can be a natural by-product. So I invite you, in life and in work, to let the game come to you and see the brilliance in yourself and others light up around you.