On Sunday afternoon September 15, 2019, Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez began experiencing chest pains during the team’s game with the Atlanta Braves and was immediately rushed to Washington Adventist Hospital. Tests revealed Martinez was fine but he was forced to stay home and rest during the following three-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Like Coach Martinez, many people are currently experiencing a layoff, pause, halt, interruption, or break in their life.
Believe it or not, an inconvenience/interruption in your life can actually be a catalyst for significant growth and future success.
It is simply a matter of how you steward your downtime. Using Jesse Dougherty’s wonderful book Buzzsaw: The Improbable Story Of How The Washington Nationals Won The World Series as a reference, let’s look at what Coach Dave Martinez did during his medically-mandated hiatus.
Martinez was able to take a 30,000-foot view of his team which was in the midst of a playoff race. After starting the season 19-31, the Nationals had the best record in the major leagues over the next 70 games. Martinez now had the time and resources to autopsy its success.
Armed with an iPad and plenty of free time, Martinez began doing deep dives into the statistics of each of his players using the website Baseball-Reference. Because of his ability to process large amounts of information, Martinez digested a season’s worth of data in just a little over a week.
He then created workloads that would keep his players healthy and in rhythm for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs. Martinez also reconfigured his starting and relief pitching rotations.
However you wish to define it, it was during this layoff, pause, halt, interruption, and break in his life that Martinez came to realization his team was perfectly constructed for the postseason. Dougherty wrote, “His internet dive went from a reflective year in review, to dissecting his entire approach, to convincing himself that, yeah, this could be the team that broke through.”
Martinez could not wait to return to the team. The (forced) downtime allowed him to return reenergized and full of fresh ideas to make the team better. How much better did the team get? As you could tell from the title of the book, they won the 2019 World Series.
The following are 7 Benefits To A Layoff, Pause, Halt, Interruption Or Break In Your Life we learn from Coach Dave Martinez:
- Reflection – A layoff, pause, halt, interruption, or break in your life gives you a time to look back and learn from both your successes and failures.
- Reenergize – The most important thing a leader brings to their organization is energy. A break in your life can provide you the opportunity to regain the much-needed physical and mental energy needed for the next season of your life.
- Perspective – As a baseball manager with a 162-game schedule, you can obviously get bogged down in the day-to-day details. Stepping away allowed Martinez to gain a higher-level, more executive view of his team.
- Better Use of Technology – Martinez used his iPad and the internet as tools to accelerate his personal growth.
- Increased Intelligence – Martinez did a deep dive into the statistical performance of each member of his team. He also had many new ideas he would implement upon his return. He got smarter.
- Reorganization – Martinez changed the players’ workloads and changed the pitching rotation.
- Change – Even though the team had the league’s best record over the last 70 games, Martinez made the necessary adjustments allowing the Nationals to get even better and win their first World Series.
Reflection, Reenergize, Perspective, Better Use of Technology, Increased Intelligence, Reorganization, and Change. These are 7 benefits to a layoff, pause, halt, interruption, or break in your life.
I highly recommend you purchase Buzzsaw: The Improbable Story Of How The Washington Nationals Won The World Series. You can do so by clicking HERE or on the image above.
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