We’ve got another incredible guest, former Major Leaguer, former Cleveland Indian, Matt LaPorta, former University of Florida Gator. That’s a big deal out here in Florida so give him some props. He just got inducted to the Hall of Fame and I bring that up and give him a big, “Congratulations.” I had a great time talking with Matt. He was one heck of a ball player and he’s so articulate. I’d describe what he did on the field, but the deeper structures of what goes through his mind and explaining things, making decisions, being his very best, definitely exciting interview to bring to you. One thing that jumped out to me, and actually I’ve used several times in the last few days and applied in my own life, is he goes into the story of he worked with a sports psychologist and so many fears and what-ifs in his mind.

The sport psychologist just tells him, “When that happens, then you deal with it.” No need to worry, no need to stress about it now, but if it happens then you deal with it. He’s talked about how he took that and ran with it during his career but also how that has impacted him and transitioned him when his life moved away from his career, post-retirement. I tell you, not just for professional athletes, not just for athletes in general, but when you grow up and you’re obsessed and your whole life is about one thing, it becomes sometimes a part of you at an identity level. When that happens when you have to move on from it or the role and a place in your life changes, a player goes to being a coach, sometimes that could be devastating and a very, very hard thing to go through, and sometimes it takes people very, very long time to come out of it. Unfortunately some people fall into depression and a lot of other negative patterns.

When you have this mindset of “If it happens, then you deal with it.” Not only are you going to get out of yourself, get back to taking actions, do something about it, but it also develops this idea of this concept that we talked about of self-esteem. In past podcasts, I’ve gotten a little bit more in-depth about that. There are so many different levels of confidence. You can have a feeling of it. You can have a level of confidence in your abilities. If feel you’re confident in being a good hitter or being a good player, whatever it is, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to other areas of your life or having confidence in other skills. When you develop self-esteem, that is a level of confidence within yourself that does, it is pervasive into other areas of your life. It doesn’t make you any more competent in other areas but it gives you confidence that, “I can get through this. I can learn it or I can handle this. I can get to the other side and be successful in what it is I want or where I want to go.” I think that’s the beauty of this concept and idea of dealing with it. I know I had to bring and remind it to myself several times in the last couple of days with some of the personal issue that I went through.

I think of another story that someone put on Facebook. This is a football coach. I know he does baseball as well. He was just sharing how one parent was complaining because their child wasn’t playing and that he was damaging the player’s self-esteem. This goes exactly to what I’m talking about self-esteem comes from the adversity. It comes from your going through the hard challenges. It’s not about being in the right situation on the right team playing well, that doesn’t build self-esteem. That builds a lot of confidence and other things but it doesn’t build the true depth of self-esteem, dealing with that adversity, knowing that you can come out on top again and again, that you can take on a bigger challenge next time. That was the thing I want to share with you, a little insight.

I’m very excited to bring you this interview with Matt. Also, I appreciate you guys for coming again and again check out this Full Force Life podcast. I hope also that you’ve taken the time to go to @JasonBottsPeakState, the Facebook page as well as my personal profile, @JasonBotts, Instagram, we’re in there @BigJasonBotts and Twitter, @BigJasonBotts.. I enjoin you, appreciate you taking the time to listen to the podcast but there is so much more content that you can find on those other pages. I’m making videos each week. I’m starting to do live videos as well where you can go in and really do a true question and answer situation. Definitely coming down on social media, there’s so much more I want to share with you when it comes to peak performance, mental performance, being our very best both inside and outside the white lines and living full force. Without any further ado, let me go ahead and we’ll get Matt LaPorta up to the plate. He and I will see you on the other side.

 

Listen to the podcast here:

 

MLB Matt LaPorta: Transitioning Out of The Game and Dealing With It

First off, you finally got the introduction in the Hall of Fame, right? 

Yeah.

Congratulations. University of Florida Hall of Fame. One of the first questions I want to task you is talk about that experience and why you chose to be a Gator and to go there.  Just share some of your experiences.

<figure id="attachment_825" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Growing up, I thought that guys that went to college were frankly losers.</figcaption></figure>

Originally, I never really wanted to go to college. You played professional baseball and you know that deal. Growing up, I thought that guys that went to college were frankly losers. I didn’t think they were good enough to get to the Big Leagues and that’s why they went to college. Little did I know, I would end up in that route going to UF. What happened was I got drafted in the fourteenth round at a high school. I was going to sign. I was dead set on signing, take my $150,000, and go start my professional career. Really, it got to a point though where Coach Dave Tollett, who is now the head coach of Florida Gulf Coast and my high school baseball coach, we talked a lot about it. I prayed a lot about it and just trying to figure out what makes sense for me. Since then, I came to a decision obviously to go to University of Florida. My mom went to school there, so it was still a natural fit. I had a good chance at starting as a freshman so I made the decision and end up going to college.

What are some of those reasons, do you remember? Making the change of mind?

I took the emotional part out of it and started really weighing out. My dad would always say, “Write down your pros and cons of each situation,” so I did that. I really had a lot of talks with people. One of the things that stood out throughout those talks was, “If you’re not good enough to get drafted again out of college, you are never going to be good enough to make it to the Big Leagues. Go to college, get an education, get stronger, get better at your craft, and when you come out, if you are as good as you think you might be or hope you might be, maybe you don’t start in Rookie Ball, maybe you start in High-A or Double-A or Triple-A. You’ll never know.” I took that approach and that’s really what helped drive me to make that decision to go to school.

On the website, it’s said you were born in Port Charlotte. Did you grow up in Port Charlotte?

I grew up in Port Charlotte; the Rangers there. I’m sure you have seen me at Rookie Ball at some point or something.

That was my first day of professional experience was arriving into Port Charlotte at 12:15 AM and walking into the Days Inn Hotel. I had a lot of fun memories for myself there, but I think it’s really cool you grew up there. Any experiences with going to spring training and the Rookie Ball? You got the Florida State League there. How was that growing up having access to all that stuff?

It was great. My really good friend owned this field. There was nothing out there. There was this house that was right next to the field, that was my buddy’s house. They had a fruit stand. A lot of guys actually remember that little fruit stand because it was right there on the corner w