Is your daughter playing for the wrong reasons?

Is your daughter so focused on the results (aka her statistics) that she’s not even playing well anymore? Or even worse, not having fun anymore? 

She might be playing for the wrong reasons. 

I know that I was obsessed with my batting average growing up. I remember bunting or even getting out and thinking about how it was going to lower my batting average. It would make me so upset. I think it’s safe to say, this kind of obsession over the results and stats was not helping me play freely, with confidence, and performing the way I knew how to. It was holding me back from my full potential. I was playing for the wrong reasons. 

Here’s the tricky part. How do you get your daughter to let go of the results (statistics) and play for the joy of the game? 

I’m going to walk you through how to help her see playing from a whole new perspective. 

1️⃣ Have your daughter write down her goals for playing, competing, and being an athlete

Oftentimes, girls have goals like…

👉 .350 batting average

👉 increase speed 

👉 make the varsity team 

These are great. We should have a vision. Goals help motivate us. But, it’s not the only reason we should be playing.

1️⃣.2️⃣ If you want to go a step further with goals. Have your daughter think about 1-2 action goals for each of the goals she comes up with. Action goals are things she is going to do on a consistent basis that is going to help her achieve those goals she set. 

2️⃣ Have your daughter write down her purpose for playing, competing, and being an athlete

Explain this to her: 

✅ She can’t control results (outcomes, statistics, etc.), but she can influence them - meaning she can take action with those action goals, work hard physically and mentally, focus on the things she can control instead of what’s out of her control and it will often lead to accomplishing those goals, but the end result is out of her control 

✅Since she can’t control the results, playing for results isn’t why she’s playing. She’s playing for her purpose. That’s why she shows up, that’s why she works hard, that’s why she loves to play. Remind her that her purpose is why she plays the game and to focus on that instead of the results. 

I hope this helps set her free to play the way she knows how to! 

💕Paige