Sweat the small stuff

Sweat the small stuff.

The small stuff matters the most, given that our lives are just a large collection of small moments.

When I was playing professional baseball, I began writing daily.

I needed it badly — a broken foot sidelined me for 3 months, so writing helped me sort through my emotions.

But after a few weeks, something weird happened: my forearm would get tight and sore, which is a BIG problem when you make your living throwing baseballs.

After connecting my new writing habit and the soreness, I thought of potential solutions.

I considered not writing anymore, writing less, or typing instead of handwriting.

But none of these felt right. Writing had become the sole reason why I had been able to keep my attitude positive through the injury, so I kept searching for a way to fix my soreness.

While searching for answers, one day I saw my teammate signing a paper and realized that his grip was completely different from mine. So I sat down and reconstructed my grip.

•Finger pressure.

•The kind of pen and ink I used.

•How many fingers I had on the pen.

After a few days of adjusting my grip and pressure, the soreness dissapeared.

This was such a small change, but it yielded a big result.

To stop writing would have meant ignoring my mental health, and to keep doing it the same way meant to ruin my physical health.

But writing wasn’t the problem, it was how I was writing.

Sticking with a habit is difficult. Had I not changed the way I gripped a pen, I would have likely given up writing for some months or years(if not forever) and I wouldn’t still be writing every day like I am now.

I think that’s a pretty good case for sweating the small stuff.