In my younger years, I worked as a barista. Despite pulling shot of espresso dozens of times a day for years, every once in a while there would be a day or two days in a row where my espresso was coming out wrong. Somewhere in the process of tamping the grinds in the portafilter, I was making mistakes. I always told my coworkers that my mechanics were out of order.
I always reminded myself that if baseball players, the best in the world, could go into slumps then it was okay for me, a regular guy working in a small cafe, to go into them, too.
We would have no need for creativity if we had no problems to solve. What you have stated is the essence of creativity:
"I don't know" - I have no answer. This is a problem to be solved.
"It varies" - I have to be creative. I have to create the answer anew and from scratch.
First and foremost, you have to believe in yourself. Finding an answer is not guaranteed - you may be over the hill - but until you start believing in yourself, you have lost, because you have lost the spark of creativity. When you have self-assurance you can look at the problem with an eye to the solution, just like you did at Fenway.
Belief is powerful and I can also think of many games when it felt like the opposite of a slump. Hyper-focused. Part of the denial that helps you stay hot and not question it. But the creativity to navigate the regular game, the 5-5 stretch as a team. Keeping at it through the grind.
Doug, once again your writing amazes me. Slumps happen to all of us in life either at work, in keeping up and building friendships, in communicating with our relatives, in appreciating and supporting the loved ones closest to us and in so much more. This article can be applied to all those slumps we endure in our life. It has helped me already.
As my dad used to say, “ a slump is like a cold. It will last ten days no matter what you do.”
Wise man! :) So hard to get out of it!
Excellent article! The mind works in mysterious ways
Indeed!
Great stuff Doug. And love the Francona tidbit
Francona made it make sense visually. It was the perfect image.
Mark Grace had some interesting ideas on busting slumps. 😂
My Substack is PG-13
😂
In my younger years, I worked as a barista. Despite pulling shot of espresso dozens of times a day for years, every once in a while there would be a day or two days in a row where my espresso was coming out wrong. Somewhere in the process of tamping the grinds in the portafilter, I was making mistakes. I always told my coworkers that my mechanics were out of order.
I always reminded myself that if baseball players, the best in the world, could go into slumps then it was okay for me, a regular guy working in a small cafe, to go into them, too.
I often wonder about the universality of slumps. How people deal with them in other non-sports industries.
This speaks volumes:
So it presents the age-old question:
“How do you get out of one?”
The short answer is, “I don’t know.”
The long answer is, “It varies.”
We would have no need for creativity if we had no problems to solve. What you have stated is the essence of creativity:
"I don't know" - I have no answer. This is a problem to be solved.
"It varies" - I have to be creative. I have to create the answer anew and from scratch.
First and foremost, you have to believe in yourself. Finding an answer is not guaranteed - you may be over the hill - but until you start believing in yourself, you have lost, because you have lost the spark of creativity. When you have self-assurance you can look at the problem with an eye to the solution, just like you did at Fenway.
Belief is powerful and I can also think of many games when it felt like the opposite of a slump. Hyper-focused. Part of the denial that helps you stay hot and not question it. But the creativity to navigate the regular game, the 5-5 stretch as a team. Keeping at it through the grind.
Doug, once again your writing amazes me. Slumps happen to all of us in life either at work, in keeping up and building friendships, in communicating with our relatives, in appreciating and supporting the loved ones closest to us and in so much more. This article can be applied to all those slumps we endure in our life. It has helped me already.