I am a Braves fan.
It’s a tough year to be a Braves fan.
The manager has been fired. The players have been traded. And traded again. And the overall team is green. Showing potential, but held down by inexperience.
And all of that is intentional.
A couple years ago, the team was strong, but aging. Several key players retired or moved on. With a new stadium on the horizon in 2017, those in charge elected to invest in young players with promise with the intention of spending a couple years rebuilding the team into something hopefully even better.
The fans get it.
They know that it’s a period of trial and error to capitalize on what works and discard what doesn’t. They accept that there will be some flexibility of identity as the team works to find its cohesion and purpose again. They are understanding about the mistakes and patient with the learning curve.
And most importantly, the fans focus on celebrating the victories rather than cursing the losses while trusting in the process and believing that greatness is around the corner.
There’s a freedom that comes with a rebuilding year. Opportunity to explore without fear of disrupting the status quo. There may not yet be victories, but the early seeds of success are growing just beneath the surface.
Teams aren’t the only ones that sometimes need to take a rebuilding year.
Sometimes life throws us curveballs that wipe out all of our experience. That leave us green and uncertain as the defeats pile up and threaten to bury any hope of success.
It’s easy to compare that new state with the former one and grow frustrated at the perceived decline.
But what if, instead of seeing it as a demotion, you embraced it as an opportunity to learn? To try on and adapt? To discard expectations and use small victories as motivation? To be gentle with yourself about the outcomes but firm with yourself about the importance of always trying again?
It’s not the beginning of the end.
It’s the beginning of the beginning.
Your very own rebuilding year.
What can you do now to help make your next season a winning one?
Related: Starting Over
Thank you for this. I have been struggling this year with many things. I’m going to look at different areas to see what I want to improve. The biggest thing I need to do is STOP looking for potential partners and just enjoy making new connections and rebuilding ones that have been negleted.
Sounds like you know what you need:))
This Is def what I needed to hear right now after struggling with a divorce I needed some hope and I want to make this next year a new one full of new things.
Any new things on the agenda??:)
That is the question I have been pondering…
Excellent post, thank you!!!! Exactly what I needed to read today…Ironically (or divine inspiration?!?!) I recently told my friends that this past year and few months have been “The Year of Trial and Error”- thank you!!!
What a great – and accurate- way to describe it!! Love:))