Are you always 

  

anticipating

                               

the next pitch?

     Does your on-the-job behavior match the thinking of a baseball player?  Are you always anticipating the next pitch, and what you’ll do if the ball goes here, and what you’ll do if the ball goes there, and what you’ll do if the signals change . . . or the winds change . . . or your superstitous teammates don’t change the shirts they’ve worn for the last three games? 

     Nothing wrong with thinking like a baseball player unless the company or industry you’re in is Armenian or Finnish, or simply doesn’t leave you time to think.  Maybe the company or industry you’re trying to represent as the star left fielder is busy playing hockey or fast-break basketball?  Circumstances like these make for tough going, trying to get your glove to get in the game!  

     Worse, I suppose, you could be a serious golfer in the middle of a football game (keep the first aid squad phone numbers handy!).  Let’s face it, you can’t play soccer on a tennis court or water polo on a ski slope (Yikes!  Now that would be cold, and you’d never want to miss the ball and have to chase after it!). 

     So, what’s the message?  If your work situation is unhappy, or giving you headaches, knots in your stomach, or other stress-provoked ailments like lower back pain (or, really, just about anything you can think of . . . uhuh, including those two merciless extremes: diarrhea and constipation), step back from the action (no pun intended), and take some deep breaths [Really!  See “ARE YOU BREATHING?” under the Articles tab on this site].

     Then, ask yourself if you’re “playing the same game” as everyone else, and especially of course, the boss!  Entrepreneurs (and male, female, black, white, purple, orange, MBA or otherwise, makes no difference) rarely survive corporate life because they march to a different drummer.  Regardless of money earned, most would prefer to be an individual Tiger Woods-type performer than to be any superstar team player. 

     Conversely, not many corporate types succeed with business startups.  Often, because they fail to realize that they must now pay the expense account submissions, turn out the lights, take out the trash, skip lunch and work far past the luxurous 9-5 weekdays they’re used to.  [See June Archives blog post: “TO ENTREPRENEUR OR NOT TO ENTREPRENEUR?”]

     Maybe you need to examine the environment you work in more carefully and consider if it’s really the match for your skills and interests and personality that it once appeared to be.  We do change, you know.  And, yes indeed, old dogs can learn new tricks. 

     But before you decide to toss your corporate cookies out the window to become a deep sea fisherman or fisherwoman (thought I’d throw that in just in case you’re a compulsive HR executive; I wouldn’t want demerits, even though I never heard of a fisherwoman), think again! 

     The grass . . . yes, it does look greener over there, but remember that these days, EVERYthing is greener!  It’s getting hard to tell which came first —

                                  environmentalists or St. Patrick?!             halalpiar