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Amazing Possibilities!

  • Writer's pictureMatthew Kelly

Begin With The Basics



A pitcher doesn’t throw a hundred-mile-per-hour fastball on

his first attempt. First he learns to hold the ball, then he learns to

throw the ball, and then he learns to throw the ball in the right direction. These steps are so fundamental that we overlook them.


Only then does a pitcher begin to improve speed and accuracy. He

throws a seventy-mile-per-hour ball before he throws an eighty mile-

per-hour ball, and a ninety-mile-per-hour ball before he

throws that hundred-mile-per-hour fastball. There may be days

when he can’t throw as fast as he could the day before. In these moments, he must either celebrate his overall progress or focus on

some aspect other than speed. He is not throwing as fast, but perhaps he is moving the ball better than he ever has or throwing with

more accuracy. At every juncture, he celebrates his progress.


When a pitcher gets injured, he begins rehabilitation by going

back to basics. He returns to the beginning, even to such fundamentals as learning to hold the ball again. A great rehab coach

designs a plan with stages and goals along the way so that the recovering athlete can celebrate his progress.


Celebrating progress is fundamental in the psychology of

change. In our culture we tend to celebrate by eating or buying

things, but the celebration I speak of here is something that takes

place within us. Celebrating progress means giving yourself a psychological pat on the back. There is nothing more powerful than

the way you speak to yourself. Celebrating progress is the first secret

to breaking those patterns of failure.


Matthew Kelly


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