Thanks ClevelandDad,
The other thing I realized from this book ... and that I reinforce frequently with my son ... is that many of these concepts apply to so many other areas of our lives. These 'lessons' are much more than an approach to baseball training and performance, but to view them as a framework for how we live our lives in setting worthy and challenging goals, striving for success, and learning from failure. Most importantly, I really embrace the view that the ultimate goal is our constant growth and improvement as positive, passionate, motivated, and socially compassionate individuals that see striving for success as a life-long journey and the growth of our human potential as the real goal ... i.e., striving for success at a lofty goal is really the 'means' by which we achieve the ultimate 'result' of constantly growing and improving ourselves.
One key concept is to learn not to fear failure, but to embrace it as a natural component of striving for anything worthwhile. We all talk about seeing the difference between a batter that is afraid of striking out before the first pitch is thrown, and the batter that isn't afraid of any outcome but is simply focused on getting a job done. Same thing in life ... some of the most successful people around fail all the time, yet one of the main reasons they are successful is because they aren't afraid to fail. They have most importantly made the conceptual 'leap' that success and failure aren't tied to their self-image or self-worth, but are simply components of striving to do something worthwhile.
Yet there are so many people in our world that artificially place limits in their lives ... their careers, the richness and depth of relationships with others, the richness of their experiences, and their achievements ... because they are emotionally or mentally paralyzed by fear, they are afraid to embrace and learn from failure.