I’m not going to lie. I like to show-off. It’s not because I think I’m a super-star – I’m not. It’s not because I think I’m better than you half the time – I’m not. It’s mostly because, at 38, I’m learning skills that most people learn in their early 20s. I like feeling younger than I am and I like to show that I can still hang with the kids. Like every show-off, though, there’s a tendency to bite off more than you can chew and wind-up falling flat on your face – or worse! – and getting seriously hurt. 
However, these humbling situations are important for personal growth. Whenever you learn new skills or change your diet in a way that makes your feel better overall or start to overcome a major injury – whatever! – we have a tend to push the bar and little further out of our comfort zone. If that works out, we’ll push it even further. That’s just human nature. It’s what we do and it’s how we get better faster. Pushing yourself too far often results in getting humbled and you’re now sitting on your thumbs wishing everyone in the room would just go away.
Red Sox Hall of Famer David Ortiz said it best. In his book “Papi” he talks about facing Joaquin Benoit in 2013. The first time he faced him he was humbled by the change-up in a game the Detroit Tigers would win 7-4. David said to himself and his teammates “Next time we face him, I’m going to look for that pitch the entire at bat.” Knowing he was going to face him again, he went to the video room and studied Benoit’s pitch sequencing and how his change-up moved. He spent months and months preparing for that pitch. Three and a half months later, he got his chance in the American League Championship Series. With the Red Sox floundering against the Tigers in both games one and two, Ortiz came to the plate with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth. The Tigers, remembering his success against Ortiz earlier in the year, brought Benoit out of the bullpen to face Ortiz. Ortiz said to himself “Here comes my change up!” Sure enough, it came. David spent the better part of the season preparing for that one pitch and three and half months after being embarrassed by it, he launched a grand slam into the bullpen in right field at Fenway Park. The Sox went on to win the game, the series, and eventually the World Series. One could argue that without that humbling moment earlier in the year, the grand slam wouldn't have happened because David Ortiz wouldn't have studied and waited for that pitch.
That’s true for all of us. Humbling moments give us the motivation to step back, analyse what it is we need to work on, and give us the proper direction forward. Ortiz worked on that pitch and made sure he was prepared when it came up again. As a personal example, when I tried to do a muscle up for the first time in front of my friends, I fell off the bar and wound up fracturing a rib. So, I took a step back, studied the progressions and learned how to do the move perfectly. If I didn’t try that stupid move at first, I wouldn’t have taken the time to study the move. Now I’m sure to study the progressions whenever I learn a new skill. No more idiocy.
Sometimes, you might get humbled and think “never in a million years! I better just quit now.” And that’s fine. I’ve done that a couple times. I had a try-out with the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) in 2019 and was ranked 72 out of 75 participants. Even though I did well by my own standards, I was way outclassed by pretty much everyone there. I could practice, train, and eat perfectly for the next 10 years and still be nowhere near where any of those guys were. So, I walked away and never looked back. I’m very glad I did it, though, because it taught me who I am and where I’m at as a baseball player. But I tried. Because I tried, I’m no longer thinking about what-ifs or coulda, woulda, shoulda’s. I’m an amateur player and I’m glad to be one.
I also tried to open a brewery once. My partner and I made fantastic beer, but the whole process of securing funding was a nightmare and rather embarrassing. I watched a close friend of mine work hard and open White Crow Brewery in Pyeonchang, South Korea. He’s very successful and after watching him work his magic with the machinery I’m very glad to have been humbled before getting it off the ground. There’s no way I could run the machinery the way he does. I’m very happy to be where I am and am more thrilled to see him succeed where I failed.
In these situations, walking away after being humbled was an excellent decision.
And finally getting humbled might teach you that you’ve actually been doing everything wrong, and you need to change your strategy completely.
In a story, you’ll hear ad nauseum on this site, I can honestly say that breaking my neck was the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. Around 2013, I decided that I was sick of being the slick speedster and wanted to being a power hitter, and I thought the best way to do that was to bulk-up. I started power lifting, taking hard gainer supplements and did everything I could to add few extra layers of muscle. It was working. According to inBody measurements, I was up to 51kg of muscle and could bench 1.5x my body weight no problem. But I was stiff as a board. I couldn’t touch my toes, I was slowing down and swinging a bat was surprisingly laborious. Then I broke my neck doing barbell calf raises.
Being in the neck brace for 6 months and hearing the initial prognosis that I’d never play baseball or lift my kids again destroyed me. However, it gave me the motivation to stick it to the doctors and reshape my philosophy. I wasn’t focusing on my diet, so I overhauled everything once this happened. I decided to move towards functional exercise as opposed to going to for brute strength and I started doing yoga (as that was the only exercise I could do with a brace on.) If I wasn’t humbled by the bar, I would’ve never done any of that. I’d say it worked out because I’ve lost a good 20kg. According to inBody, I’ve lost a good 10kg of each muscle and fat.
I can honestly say that I’m stronger and a much better baseball player now with less muscle because I focus on diet first and foremost. Then workouts revolve around mobility and movement first and strength second. I now know how to train to achieve my goals. That wouldn’t have happened if I weren’t humbled.
There’s a lot of focus today on failure and how failure provides good learning experiences. That couldn’t be truer. Taking the right mind-set towards failure leads to infinite growth and being humbled and embarrassed occasionally is a huge part of that growth brought by failure. It’s like that cliched truism: He who laughs last laughs best.
So take those embarrassing moments and turn them into something great.