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All right, guys, welcome back to the Most Valuable Agent Podcast. Now, I started this show to help players and parents truly understand the business side of baseball. But every once in a while, I'm going to take it back to some of my, I guess, foundational interests and things that I like to talk about. Which one of those just so happens to be the mental side of the game. And the reason for that is sometimes the hardest opponent you're ever going to face isn't in the other dugout. It's actually the one inside your head. And that's what today's episode is going to all be about. So what happens when you try to be your own source of identity, your own source of control, your own source of meaning, and that actually stops working? Do you ever notice how much energy we spend trying to hold everything together? How your performance, your image, your relationships, your routine, all of it, you just try to strangle all that and control it non stop. You tell yourself, if I, if I can just work a little harder, if I could stay a little sharper, if I control every single variable, that things will somehow stay in order. And for a while, that strategy, it may work, right? You perform, you win, keep it all moving until one day you don't. Because here's the truth. When you try to be your own source of identity, your own source of control, your own source of meaning, it does work. For a while, right? Until it doesn't. At first, the results, they're going to validate you. You feel strong, you feel focused, you feel in control. You get that scholarship, you get drafted, right? You make that team and you start to believe, this is who I am. But then something shifts, something starts to change, right? Maybe you get hurt, maybe you just struggle, but the game stops rewarding you the same way that it used to. And that's when this quiet panic internally, it starts to creep in, right? You feel the foundation start to shake. Because what you've built your identity on, it suddenly isn't holding you up anymore. The truth is that every athlete, they eventually all reach this point, the point where the thing that once gave them all the confidence in the world, it now actually creates anxiety. Where that same drive that built you, it now burns you out. Because the deeper question, it isn't whether you can perform. It's what happens when performance isn't enough anymore. That's the moment that most people start searching for a new way to win, unfortunately, right? Instead of actually doing the hard work, they double down on the work. They change their training, they change their diet, they Change their coach even. They chase this next fix of certainty. Really anything that can get them back to this feeling of control. But what they don't realize is they're reinforcing the same illusion, the belief that peace comes from performance. You see, the illusion of control, it's. It's one of the most powerful lies that you could tell yourself, especially in sports, but also in life. It convinces you that if you can just be perfect, that every detail, you can control every outcome. And for a little while, as I said before, it feels true. Right until that randomness of the game, it reminds you that you're actually not the one in charge at all, right? You get a bad hop, there's some blown call, you get a freak injury, and suddenly you're faced with the question that most people spend their entire lives avoiding. And that question is, who am I when I'm not winning? Now, that's the moment that either is going to break you or. Or it's going to build you. Because now you're being asked to find the source that isn't dependent on the outcome, to find worth, that isn't tied to production, to find meaning that doesn't vanish when the stats dip or the spotlight moves on. Now, look, that's not weakness. That's where really strength actually begins. The players who last, the ones who stay centered through all of the chaos, they've learned something that most never do, that control. It's actually temporary. It's the peace. The piece is chosen. They stop chasing outcomes and they start mastering presence. They stop performing for validation, and they start competing from identity. Now, I've seen it over and over again. The ones who find peace in the middle of uncertainty, they pray freer. They play freer. Rather, they don't tighten up when the game speeds up. They don't crumble under pressure because their identity isn't on the line. Every pitch, they've shifted from performing for something to performing from something. I'm going to say that again. They shift from performing for something to performing from something. And that's the shift that changes everything. So maybe this episode finds you in that space where what used to work isn't working anymore, right? You've been your own source, you've been trying to control, to perform every single piece of your game through effort alone. But it's exhausting. You're tired, isn't it? Because deep down you know that it's actually not sustainable. So maybe the invitation isn't to push harder. Maybe it's to stop trying to be your own source. To let go. Not in a passive way, but in a powerful way. To stop chasing control and start building from stability. To stop defining yourself by what you can produce and start living from who you already are. Now, the irony is that when you finally stop gripping it so tight, funny enough, you actually perform better. Because you're no longer terrified of losing. You're not terrified of losing. Actually, what never was yours to lose in the first place. You could play looser, right? You compete clear. You can lead with conviction, not fear. That's what happens when you stop trying to be your own source, you stop performing for approval, and you start performing from alignment. So here's my question for you. What are you still trying to control that's controlling you? Where are you still trying to prove something instead of just playing free? Because when you finally stop trying to be your own source of identity, your own source of control, your own source of meaning, that's when you rediscover who you actually are. And from that place, everything can change.