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Mentoring is Baseball
Did you know that the average of every baseball player in the hall of fame is a combined .303. That means if you hit the ball 303 out of 1,000 times, you are considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. That’s 697 misses!
3 out of every 10 makes a great baseball player. And I could say the same is true for mentoring.
When I first became a mentor, I wanted a home run every time. I thought my mentee would love me and tell me how great I was and earn straight A’s while getting a full ride to Harvard. When those things didn’t happen, I got disappointed.
After a while, I adjusted my definition of success.
- Just hanging out wth my mentee was a basehit. A single, if you will.
- A smile was a double.
- A laugh was a triple.
- A solid conversation was a home run.
I focused on plate appearances, not homeruns. I trusted that the Lord would do what he does if I just kept getting up to the plate.
3 out of every 10. If you can have a great hang out or deep conversation 3 out of every 10 times, I’d say that’ll put you in the mentoring hall of fame.
The more swings the better, as the more you swing, the more chances you get at contact. Just like the more you hang out with your mentee, the more chances you get at connecting.
Don’t worry about swinging for the fences or home runs. Just focus on taking your swings and seeing what happens.
Mentoring is Baseball.
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Please follow @youcanmentor on social media and give us a 5 star rating! If you are a part of a mentoring organization, we'd love to get to know you! Please reach out to us and we can spotlight your org on the pod or on our website.
Contact us at zach@youcanmentor.com or at www.youcanmentor.com.
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Please follow @youcanmentor on social media and give us a 5 star rating! If you are a part of a mentoring organization, we'd love to get to know you! Please reach out to us and we can spotlight your org on the pod or on our website.
Contact us at zach@youcanmentor.com or at www.youcanmentor.com.
Creators & Guests
What is You Can Mentor: A Christian Mentoring Podcast?
You Can Mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders through resources and relationships to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community.
We want to hear from you! Send any mentoring questions to hello@youcanmentor.com, and we'll answer them on our podcast. We want to help you become the best possible mentor you can be. Also, if you are a mentoring organization, church, or non-profit, connect with us to join our mentoring network or to be spotlighted on our show.
Please find out more at www.youcanmentor.com or find us on social media. You will find more resources on our website to help equip and encourage mentors. We have downloadable resources, cohort opportunities, and an opportunity to build relationships with other Christian mentoring leaders.
You can mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring organizations through resources and relationships to love God, love others and make disciples. Learn more at youcanmentor.com or follow us on social media. You can mentor. Welcome, mentors, to today's Mentoring Minute. Today's topic is called Mentoring is Baseball.
Zach:You see, I can remember whenever I was a kid and I first started playing the game of baseball. I would strap up my batting gloves and step in the batter's box and I would try to hit a home run every single time. I mean, I would swing so hard that I'd almost come out of my shoes. Needless to say, I didn't really hit home runs, and I got pretty disappointed pretty quick. It wasn't until I learned the game of baseball that I figured out that just hitting the ball is a great place to start.
Zach:Did you know that the average of every baseball player in the hall of fame is a combined 303? That means that if you hit the ball 303 times out of a1000, you're considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Yeah. That's 303 hits, but that's also 697 misses. Because in baseball, if you hit it 3 out of every 10 times, well, that makes you one of the best ever.
Zach:And I could say that the same thing is true for mentoring. Whenever I first became a mentor, I wanted to hit a home run every time. I thought my mentee would absolutely love me. Think I was the coolest guy in the entire world. Every time we'd hang out, he would say, thank you, Zach.
Zach:You're the greatest mentor ever. I am so lucky to have you. I figured he would make straight a's and get a full scholarship to Harvard. I mean, the sky's the limit, and this kid's gonna completely transform in about 6 weeks under my mentorship. Well, when that didn't happen, I got pretty disappointed.
Zach:But then I figured out how to adjust my definition of success. You see, just hanging out with my mentee, that was a base hit. A single, if you will. A smile on his face, well, that was a double. A laugh, that was a triple.
Zach:And a solid conversation, well, that was a home run. I started to focus on plate appearances and how many times I could swing the bat, not home runs. And I trusted that the Lord would do what he does if I just kept going up to the plate. Because 3 out of every 10 well that's not too bad. If you can have a great time hanging out or deep conversation with your mentee 3 out of every 10 times, I'd say that might put you in the mentoring Hall of Fame.
Zach:5 out of every 10 times, you're one of the best ever. The more swings in baseball, the better. Because the more you swing, the more chances you get at making contact with the baseball. Well, it's just like that in mentoring too. The more you hang out with your mentee, the more chances you get at connecting.
Zach:So don't worry about swinging for the fences or hitting a home run. Just focus on taking your swings and seeing what happens. Because mentoring is baseball. Thank you so much for listening to today's Mentoring Minute. If you'd like to learn more, go to our website, you can mentor.com.
Zach:Share this with your friends and other mentors, or find us on social media. Thank you so much. Have a good day and remember, you can mentor. Thanks for tuning in to the You Can Mentor podcast. Please share this with other mentors and download our free resources on our website.
Zach:You can also order Zach's book, You Can Mentor, or John's book, Mephibsheth, on Amazon. Lastly, we'd really appreciate it if you gave us a 5 star rating on whatever listening platform you are tuning in on. If you'd like to connect with us further, please contact us through our website because we're always looking for new guests or connections. Thank you. And remember, you can mentor.