This past summer the two starting pitchers in the 2025 MLB All Star game were Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes. For those that follow baseball I don’t think it was any surprise these dominating arms were asked to represent their respective leagues. When we see the Cy Young results in mid-November, I have a feeling both of these guys will be highly considered.
Skubal, the 2024 AL Cy Young winner, is a fierce competitor on the mound with a funky left-handed delivery followed by a blazing fastball or off-speed pitches that make even the best hitters look confused. Skenes at times looks like a man amongst boys with his overpowering fastball and deceptive off speed yielding an incredible sub-2 ERA for 2025.
The part I love about each of their stories is how unique their timelines were to this point. Most would watch these two phenoms and assume these guys dominated on the mound at every level from travel ball as a kid to high school to the collegiate level. Far from the truth for these top tier arms.
What if I told you combined between the two of them, they had 3 total scholarship offers? What if I told you Skenes wasn’t even recruited to be a pitcher? What if I told you in Skubal’s eyes, he didn’t even become a good pitcher until he was 26?
With an 8- and 10-year-old of my own, I’ve already heard numerous stories of parents feeling like they have to get their kid to be the best right now. Whatever it takes – endless lessons, the most expensive sports equipment, and so on. I strongly support challenging our kids to continue to grow and develop in activities they enjoy but think we need to keep in check our expectations of having to have our kid be the absolute best right now.
If you look at Skubal and Skenes, they had their own unique timeline that came with their own process to get to now. And it’s the process we need to keep anchoring back to. Some kids naturally pick up sports quickly and their bodies are more developed while others just take a while. And that’s okay. It’s the process that’s really teaching them what success means for the future. It’s not whether they have the most points, highest batting average, most touchdowns, or any other one of the million stats that are now kept in sports. It’s about the distance they’ve come – the growth that’s taken place from the start to now.
For some of us at work, picking up the details and insights we need to excel at our role doesn’t happen at the same time. Sometimes there must be more struggles before these important concepts click.
Instead of focusing on a point in time, focus on the distance that’s been traveled. What has the process generated for growth? How far has the development evolved? Each of our processes is unique just as our timelines are unique. We never know when things will click. Whether you’re a 10-year-old kid trying to get better at sports, music, art, or whatever interest they may have to the middle aged person trying to regenerate their career, health and wellness, or relationships, the focus can’t be a single point in time but instead the journey covered.
Skene and Skubal’s stories are fantastic to learn from the journey covered and along the way all the hurdles and adaptations it took to where they are today. Never has it been about one point in time for their success. It’s been about the journey covered over their unique timelines.
Take your step: take a few moments to think about an area in life you feel you’re behind or not quite up to the spot you want to be. Assess whether you’re focusing solely on one moment in time and that’s defining your success. Take time to shift the mind from this one point in time to analyze how far you’ve come. Focus on the journey traveled as opposed to one point in time to create a more holistic perspective. Yes, you may not be where you want in our career, but how far have you come? Yes, you may not be where you want in your health and wellness journey but how far have you come? Keep your mind focused on how far you’ve come to help keep the journey moving forward.