I strongly believe that the
vast-reaching, positive changes occur due to a significant shift of the
individual’s
locus of control. Someone’s
locus of control is their deep-seated perspective of how events unfold, whether
life is happening all around them or the individual actively has control over
daily events via choices. If an
individual believes that “It is what it is and there’s nothing I can do to
change it,” they are said to have an external locus of control. If someone wakes each day deciding how he or
she should or could affect the events that will transpire they are said to own
an internal locus of control. The
baseball players that recently pushed themselves on a regular basis to cover
ground faster than they did the previous week consciously or unconsciously
connected the dots. “If I consistently
put in some sweat and concentration towards this goal and I succeeded, then I
can probably improve other things through similar means.”
Physical strength is defined as the
ability to exert force on an object in order to move it a measurable distance. If you remember your Physics 101 this reads
as Work = Force x Distance. If the
object doesn’t move no work was done.
For my baseball athletes, they learn to move kettlebells, barbells,
dumbbells and medicine balls, as well as their own bodies from point A to point B (at top-end effort). Ergo, psychological strength
could be defined as the ability to affect change on a circumstance. If the circumstance did not change, then no
mental work was done.
Today boys and young men are starving for
this type of strength and they need to learn it and then work it out. They need to exercise their psychological
abilities. While I understand and lean
towards physical training as a means of learning mental strength there are
plenty of other ways to skin the cat. If
a young man is interested in computers he should solve the problem of building
a CPU from scratch. If a young man
enjoys music encourage him to master the guitar or drums. Whatever the path, it should be challenging
and relative mastery should be the goal. Simply "trying" a sport or other skill-based activity is not adequate. When a young man learns he possesses the power of intention and follow
through, eagerness and confidence grow towards the rest of his life.
Some foundational questions in
a young man’s soul get answered when he learns of his mental strength:
- Can I come through in a pinch?
- Am I equipped to handle the inevitable challenges
of life?
- Is my confidence merely posturing or indicative
of real strength?
- Can I walk or am I just all talk?
Answers to these inevitable questions can only be truthfully found in the crucible of a challenge. A challenge is the opportunity to meet, exceed or fail to meet the demands of a given task. Those three outcomes (meet, exceed, fail) all provide feedback.And therefore they are all valuable to the young man. Who is the most attentive student in the karate class on Tuesday night? It's the 12 year old who got his nose bloodied last week by a larger neighborhood kid. Failure is extremely valuable. I should not need to explain the atrocity of giving
all participants a trophy at the end of little league baseball season.
"Well, that's a great idea Matt, but what about the teenager you wrote about last week, who had a lack of motivation to do much of anything?" Glad you asked. Tune in next week for Fathers, Gun Control and the Pursuit of Athleticism: Part 3.
-Pursue Strength
