200FT

As a baseball coach, one of the annual bucket list items is to attend the ABCA National Baseball Convention. In 2011, the ABCA convention was in Nashville and that is where I was introduced to a peak performance coach by the name of Brian Cain. One of the concepts he spoke about that day was the idea of approaching any event or task 200 feet at a time. This concept was explained as if you were going to drive from New York to Los Angeles in the dark, your headlights are the only means of being able to see where you are going and those lights only let you see the 200 feet in front of you. The idea is that you would drive the first 200 feet and then the next 200 feet and continue this process until you reach Los Angeles. Any “destination” is reached by a series of small incremental steps along the way. In short, the 200ft principle is about giving intentional energy to the immediate task at hand. We often fall victim to “destination disease” where we become so concerned with the end of our journey that we tend to lose focus on the tasks and processes that are involved in reaching the destination and often times we quit the task because we tend to focus on the journey as a whole which can be immense.

After hearing Brian speak in Nashville in 2011, I began to subscribe to his material and took a genuine interest in peak performance strategies. I began to introduce some of these concepts to our baseball players at Edmond North. The 200ft principle was one that seemed to take hold in the months leading up to the 2012 season. We discussed approaching the season, the week, the game, the inning 200 feet at a time. We wanted players to try and break these components of a season down into smaller more manageable parts that they could focus on and give more intentional energy to every aspect of their game. Ask a pitcher if they feel they have a better chance to throw ten strikes in a row or throw one strike ten times and they more than likely will feel more confident about the latter. We continued the 200ft approach throughout the season always trying to focus on winning one pitch at a time, one inning at a time, and one game at a time. With the 2012 season culminating in a state championship, the 200ft mantra was commemorated on the state championship ring as we felt it was a contributing factor to the season’s success.

I try to convey the same 200ft philosophy to my students as well as to all aspects of my life. I was asked by our principal this year to “launch” our faculty into the 2021-2022 school year. In my talk, I explained the 200ft principle and how it pertains to the school year ahead. Instead of thinking about 178 days of school, which sounds daunting, perhaps we should instead think about accomplishing one day five times in order to complete one week or even better accomplishing one period four times to complete one day. I express to my students daily to try and complete one math problem and then move to the next problem as opposed to thinking about the entirety of the assignment altogether. My students have the ability to earn wristbands each quarter that gives them some bonus opportunities throughout the year and every year the wristband always has “200ft” printed on it to remind them of the step-by-step approach to each day.

Life tends to throw many obstacles our way on a daily basis and often times we are left feeling overwhelmed by the amount of “stuff” that seems to accumulate on our to-do lists. The 200ft principle helps me daily to focus my attention and energy on the tasks that require immediate attention before moving to the next task. As our world has become more advanced, the speed of life has increased exponentially and with that, there seems to be more and more “finish lines” put in place for all of us to cross for ourselves and others. These so-called finish lines come with small races that must be navigated in order to deem the journey successful. Without segmenting these races into smaller, more manageable pieces, we can easily crumble under the pressure we put on ourselves to finish all the races we are trying to run every day. The 200ft principle has helped me keep my lists of to-do items in perspective as I run the daily race we call life. I hope you can find more structure and peace in your day by applying the 200ft principle.