Ritalin, The Mets and Other Ways To Avoid A Meltdown

I didn’t forget about you. I hope you are doing well.

Let’s talk baseball. More specifically, the Mets.

Back in the day, we used to call it worry.

People worried about stuff.

Now we call it stress.

I think the reason for this change is residue of our victim culture. Worry is something we do while stress comes from the outside.

Whatever.

The real question is how do you handle it?

This summer I was talking to a kid preparing for the LSAT. He told me he planned to take medicine for ADD to help to focus for the test. His friend has a prescription and he has used it before for the same purpose.

But I don’t recommend drugs to help you in stressful situations.

I do recommend this story as a guide. I heard it a long time ago from Robert Greene.

In ancient Japan there was this guy who prepared tea for his master. In fact he was known as the best tea preparer in the province in which he lived. He was meticulous about it and always took his time to do it right.

Well one day the Tea guy was walking the streets and stepped on the foot of a young swordsman. The swordsman was offended and challenged the Tea guy to a duel. It was planned for the next day.

Now the Tea guy didn’t have a choice but to accept the challenge. If he didn’t it would have bought shame to his family. But there was a problem. He didn’t know anything about dueling. So naturally he was in a panic.

He ran to the home of one of the great samurai masters and begged him to train him how to fight. The teacher told him that there is no way he can train him in a day to fight a competent samurai.

The Tea guy begged and begged and actually started crying. In order to calm the tea man down the teacher told him to fix him some tea while he thought about the problem.

The tea man’s entire demeanor changed as he began to make the tea. He was precise and was suddenly calm.

After the tea the teacher taught the tea guy the basics. It was obvious that the teaman was hopeless but the Teacher spent time with him anyway. Before the teaman left the teacher told him that the most important thing for him to do is to make a cup of tea for yourself right before the duel.

The next day the tea man was a bundle of nerves. He arrived at the appointed spot for the duel and saw his opponent waiting. Following the Teachers advice he set about making himself some tea.

His opponent watched in amazement at the precision in which the Tea man worked. Maybe I picked on the wrong man he thought. A man this precise is probably an excellent swordsman. He looks so calm and focused.

The young swordsman called off the duel.

There are a few lessons in this tale.

Most people fail to grasp this but our emotions are stronger than our minds. And until you get your emotions under control (especially in stressful situations) your brain can’t work.

One of the best ways to do that is to focus your mind on something you are good at. That calms your mind and makes what is stressing you more manageable.

It seems like bullshit but it works and in-case I’m wrong you can always try Ritalin…

The other, equally important lesson, is to watch where you step!

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