Base hits win games. I’m not much of a baseball fan, but I know that getting on base is a solid strategy for putting up runs and scoring more than the other team. If everyone keeps getting on base, you don’t need home runs.
Overnight success happens over a lot of nights. People you’ve just heard of have likely been slugging away at their business, craft, or ministry for years or decades or their entire life. No one is an overnight expert. Perhaps an overnight celebrity thanks to YouTube videos with catchy auto tune action, but surely not a success. These people aren’t hitting home runs, they’ve been faithfully and consistently building their skill over time.
In fact, overnight success isn’t ideal. Here are a few problems with attempting home runs every at bat.
The problem with swinging for the fences
When you swing for a home run every time, you’re going to strikeout often.
That comes with the territory. If you’re swinging hard and fast, you’re going to whiff pretty regularly. Your timing is going to be a bit off when the pitches aren’t coming as you intended.
You’re going to get frustrated quickly.
If your goal is a home run, a base hit won’t satisfy you. If you’re just trying to get on base, day in and day out, when the homer comes, you’re going to be ecstatic. And trust me, it will come.
You’re going to get tired faster.
Swinging for a home run every at bat is like trying to learn a language to fluency in one weekend–you can certainly try, but you’re going to be disappointed when it doesn’t pan out. Trying to cram everything into a small window of time is tough, exhausting and unsustainable. Small steps over a greater period of time is more likely to lead to success than great leaps in short bursts.
There is no opportunity for validation.
Everybody and their brother wants to write a book, but they probably don’t write unless they are inspired and they wouldn’t’ dream of starting small with a blog. And on top of that, they don’t even know if people are interested in what they have to say. You can’t go from never swinging a bat to hitting a home run in the MLB. Experience at different levels of difficulty is what drives growth.
You aren’t prepared to run the bases.
You’re so focused on getting to whatever the goal is, you don’t even have the framework set up to handle the basic tasks. You’re so focused on swinging the bat that you haven’t practiced running the bases and you get winded rounding 2nd and completely miss stepping on third because you were overly focused on the attention, the big hit, and you didn’t follow through with the details.
Why we are obsessed with overnight success
Get rich quick is easier than getting rich slowly. Losing 20 pounds in 10 days is more exciting than losing two pounds a week for 10 weeks. The problem with both of those attempts at results now with low effort is that quick results rarely last.
Here’s what the Bible has to say about overnight financial success:
Wealth gained hastily will dwindle,
but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.
Proverbs 13:11
Wealth gained quickly will dwindle. Not might dwindle. Not may dwindle. Will dwindle. Saving and spending wisely, over time will lead to lasting results and change.
We are obsessed with overnight success because we are a culture enamored with instant gratification. Purchase now, pay later. Pleasure now, consequences later. Results now, effort never.
How to start going for base hits
The goal is to still put runs on the board, it’s simply the focus and strategy of getting those runs that changes. Here are a few keys to building a fruitful whatever over a period of time.
Start with vision
Know why you’re trying to accomplish what you’re doing. Have a clear picture in your mind of what you want to achieve. Put it into words and make sure you read it daily, or the grind will wear you down.
Break goals down
Know what it means for you to get on base. Have clear goals that are S.M.A.R.T.
- Specific. What do you want to accomplish? Why? Who is involved? Where will the work happen? What other requirements and constraints are there?
- Measurable. Don’t say “I want to grow my business.” Say, “I want to develop 100 new paying clients” How much, how many and how will you know it finished?
- Actionable. Can you actually do something for this goal? Or is it vague and ambiguous. Go for “Make 50 phone calls every day” instead of “Help customers think warm thoughts about us.”
- Realistic. Make your goals a stretch for you, but not so audacious that they’re unachievable. Can this goal actually happen. Colonize on Mars by September 30 is probably a bit of a stretch.
- Time-bound. Put a date on it. Decide when you want it to happen by, the more specific the better. Not this year, but “by December 31 at 12pm.”
Give up on Oprah
You aren’t going to get on Oprah. Just stop it.
Slug it out, every day
The grind gets the wins. You have to be committed to doing the hard work, the menial stuff, the emails and paperwork and hard behind-the-scenes sweat and minutia that nobody else wants to do to make it.
Don’t break the chain
Jerry Seinfeld used to write jokes every single day, and every day he did that he’d put an X on his calendar. His goal was to not break the chain of Xs, and that motivated him to keep writing every single day. Whatever that is for you: learning new words every day in your language you’re studying, writing code every day, calling someone every day, whatever it is that crucial to success, do it every day.
Don’t let discouragement get the best of you
Don’t give up. Don’t be disappointed when you don’t get the big break, or when conversations don’t go the way you anticipated or when you feel like you blew it again. Every day is a new opportunity and a new chance for something to happen.