Let me tell you about this little person Matt.

Matt is one of my 13 year old ballplayers. A great kid, wonderful personality, a straight A student in school, is in the gifted program at school.  Matt can do anything well he really wants to do.

But Matt is on my team because his mother thinks he spends too much time in the books and doesn't get enough physical activity. She may be right, but Matt is not the kind of ballplayer, he could be, simply because he's there because of mom.

Matt comes out to practice and the games and does the minimum possible to get by.

Matt has the physical talents and the ability to be a very good ballplayer, but he doesn't want to be there, he's there because his mom makes him come.

Maybe good, maybe bad, but the sad part is, if Matt applied himself and really wanted to be a good ball player, he could be. But he lolligags around and doesn't hustle and do what it takes to be a good player. So he sits the bench a lot. And of course, gets discouraged because he isn't playing more.

What is Matt becoming?

What is Matt getting out of this?

Let me know ask you......are you like Matt?

A wonderful person, that has talents, yet doesn't apply those talents to the situation at hand and become the best you can become at what you are doing?

Here's a question I asked my son before the start of this baseball season: "Are you content in being mediocre?"

Last year he didn't get to play much. A lot of bench time, he was discouraged, and started blaming everyone else except himself for his situation.

Matt and Karl are a lot alike. They both are talented, both could be very good ball players, yet neither gave it all, when it was time to give it all.

Karl said No, he wasn't content with being mediocre, and did what it took to earn him a starting position on a team that went to the state semi final playoffs.

He applied himself and did what it took to earn that starting position and become a much better ball player in the process, and a much more developed person because of it.

I need to give the same talk to Matt next year. If I'm right, Matt will say no and become a starter for our Pony team next year.

Now I ask you another question: Are you content in your life with being mediocre?

If not, then only you can make that change and become the kind of person you should become to do what you want in life and to achieve your life's goals.

Now kid, it's time to get rolling.

Your life becomes what you make of it.

Circumstances and obstacles happen, but they are only there to strengthen you.

Determine what your life's major goal is.

Then apply yourself with all your heart towards achieving it.

It really doesn't get any simpler than this.

I love you all.

"It is often wonderful how putting down on paper a clear statement of a case helps one to see, not perhaps the way out, but the way in.
*-- A. C. Benson

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