Tag: Leadership Skills

This Spring has been full of baseball—in between the rain in Houston.  Cody (pictured above on the left) played his first year of Pony Baseball, and Tanner was in the Little League Minors Division.  Both had a lot of fun, and we really enjoy watching them play…

Last year, I heard about a book written by Mike Matheny, who followed a 13-year career in Major League Baseball by coaching a little league team.  He agreed to coach the team, with conditions.  In fact, a frankly worded letter he wrote to the parents of the team became an internet sensation and eventually a “manifesto”—which was codified in this book.

Matheny noted that his main goals are to:

1. Teach these boys how to play baseball the right way
2. Make a positive impact on them as young men
3. Do all this with class

So besides getting them used to spending part of every practice without a glove or a bat, learning about honesty or teamwork or loyalty, he looked for service projects. While other teams might be traveling to other states for tournaments, Matheny was looking for places where boys could help out the less fortunate.

Matheny explains, “Ironically, if I had learned anything from baseball, from all the coaching and the training and the practices and the development, it was that so much more went into making a child an adult than teaching athletic skills and how to win games.”

Click here for more of The Matheny Manifesto.

As I considered the month’s final blog post, I recalled lifeFocus, a book that I picked up while at FamilyLife’s “Weekend to Remember” with Jennifer in 2005.  The book’s subtitle is “Achieving a Life of Purpose & Influence.”  The author, Jerry Foster, wrote this in my book, “Enjoy your personal journey of influence (Romans 12:1-2).”  That’s my fifth leadership tip – “Enjoy the Journey.”

Interestingly, I had forgotten that I posted a summary of this book before the school year started!  So, I obviously needed the reminder…

My last post focused on my 90 year-old grandmother, Mano.  Foster encourages his readers to imagine this scenario:  see yourself in your nineties…in your ideal setting.  What do you hope you could say about the life you have experienced?  What would you like to see on the bottom line of your experience portfolio as your life draws to a close?

You can’t change your past, but you can change your future.  You can commit to and take steps toward acquiring true personal wealth. Achieving great success is usually a process that takes years of putting in time, working hard, climbing the ladder, and earning our stripes. We must enjoy every step of the journey instead of always focusing on the prizes at the end.

Click here to learn more.