By David Tepera, October 23, 2019

With the baseball playoffs upon us, it’s an exciting time to be a fan. For those of you who are not familiar with the baseball term “go yard,” it refers to hitting home runs.

Think about it, the ball will travel the entire yard of the field to proceed over the fence.

We all love home runs because they are rare, plus they often make a huge impact in the outcome of a game. We spend most of our time observing strikeouts, walks, base hits and a ton of throw-outs to first base.

To me, baseball has a huge reflection of our lives. How many times have you struck out in relationships, but eventually, you found the perfect partner? How many interviews did you go on before you landed the dream job?

What new diet program have you started this time because you can’t seem to make it to home plate?

During all these life events, you were hitting foul balls, base hits and sometimes scoring runs. It’s part of the ups and downs in competition, but the goal is to win the game of life.

I’m 58 years old, and over the past few years, finally went yard with a successful business, marrying my amazing wife Tina and building a stronger relationship with God.

Now, we all live different lives but have a common denominator for desiring success and happiness. We must recognize that striking out and losing games is part of the learning process. I stopped judging myself for losing and turned failure into experiences and opportunities.

Did you know, Carlos Correa’s 2019 batting average is .279. This means he is only hitting the ball less than three out of 10 times at bat. But, during those hits, he has 21 home runs and 59 RBIs. As we all know, he’s one of the most dynamic players on the Astros.

What about 5-foot, 6-inch Jose Altuve going yard with a walk-off two-run home run to clinch the ALCS against the Yankees? His batting average for this playoff series was .348.

So, what’s the true message today? Don’t let obstacles and set-backs keep you from reaching your dreams. Don’t ever give up on life because of all the failures. You must take these experiences to mold you into a mean-lean-fighting machine because if you keep swinging, you’ll eventually “go yard.”