All In

"There are some things in life, and they may be the most important things, that we cannot know by research or reflection, but only by committing ourselves. We must dare in order to know. Life is full of situations to which I can respond not with part of myself but only with commitment of my whole being." J.H. Oldham

When I coached baseball we had a saying: Desire, Discipline, Execution. Three parts to what was supposed to lead to success. The first thing was to want to succeed - to have the desire for an intended outcome. Next came discipline. Discipline to put in the work to practice the fundamentals, increase your skills, and be disciplined to practice even while unsupervised. And lastly, when game time came, to bring the desire and discipline together along with execution to achieve the desired results. Basically, these themes built on each other. Two of the three were in their control. You can pretty much know how bad you want something and you can, if you're honest with yourself, evaluate your level of discipline and know whether you put in quality work. However, executing when the rubber meets the road at game time is the tough part. Sometimes it happens just how you imagined and sometimes it doesn't.

By the way, I don't think that these three principles were only applicable on the baseball field. They apply to school, work, family, faith.....
Obviously, if it were this easy we would have won state each year and life would lived successfully, happily ever after and I would have a NY Times Best Seller. It didn't work out that way -

I guess the only disclaimer I would make about this philosophy - make sure at stage one, the desire stage - is that your goal is a worthy one.

And it never hurts to ask for a little help. Asking for wisdom in choosing what to desire; asking for the will to be disciplined even when you don't feel like it; and asking for the ability to put your faith into action - all for the purpose of loving with your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

I am convinced that God loves baseball. And the Yankees.