A Challenge

By: Coach Flint Wallace

I have a challenge I would like to put out to everyone. I truly believe this challenge will make you better. Every time you pick up your phone to spend time on social media – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, etc., stop at that exact moment and do something that will help you improve instead.

Then, after you are done, you can take a glance at that social media.

Improving could be to review for a test or quiz. Read a couple of pages in your textbook for class or in a book to gain knowledge on something you need or would like to improve on. Start a conversation with a loved one. Do some mobility work to help you move and recover better. Work on your mental game. The list can go on and on.

Research varies on the amount of time the average person spends on social media, but the minimum for most is over an hour and a half every day. That is the minimum, and for many, it is much more than that. So, if you would spend just a 1/3 of the time you spend on social media and put that into purposeful, useful work, you will become a much better student, a much better player, and a much better person.

Start this challenge out by making a list of things you want to or need to improve on. The list should contain things that can be done just about anywhere and not take more than a few minutes to do. Not things like working out or throwing, because that cannot be done all the time or in all locations (plus, you should already have those things worked into your daily schedule). This challenge is to help you gain extra time every day on the little things that over time can make a huge difference.

So, every time you pick up your phone to check out social media… Stop. Take your list out and do something on that list first. Probably a good idea to have the list on your phone. You might misplace or lose the list, but most of you would not be caught anywhere without your phone. When that item on your list is done, then you can glance at your social media.

Then the next time you pick up your phone for social media purposes, do something else on your list. And I bet by the end of the day, you have carved out an extra thirty minutes or more and spent that time on things that will help you improve. That is more than three and a half hours a week, more than fifteen hours a month, and over one hundred and eighty hours a year.

Remember, time is our most precious commodity. Carve out more of it each day to help you become better, not just entertained.

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Flint Wallace as coordinator of pitching strategies for the Colorado Rockies. He was the Director of Player Development at the Texas Baseball Ranch in Montgomery, TX. He is also the former Director of Baseball Operations at TCU and pitcher for the Oakland Athletics. For more information about the Texas Baseball Ranch visit http://www.texasbaseballranch.com/