Have you ever heard the saying, the more doors you knock on, the more that will open? Well that’s true, but the other part of the story is that the more doors you knock on, the more that will slam right in your face!

It’s called the "Law of Averages."

Before you start knocking, for whatever it is that you want, remember that even the best of the best strike out more than they win.

Take Major League Baseball for example. According to a Google search, a .400 batting average is considered "very good." This means that for every ten times a player is at bat, they get a hit four out of ten times. In 2023, the average MLB batting average was .248. Given that major league baseball players get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, to get a hit approximately 2.5 times for every ten times at bat, this puts a new spin on how success is defined.

This is exactly why it's important to understand your "Law of Averages" for whatever it is that you do, or are trying to do, to be successful. Outside of the baseball world, one might think that only being successful 2.5 times out of ten tries sounds more like failure. But once you understand the "average," you know just the opposite is true.

It seems a lot of people don’t understand this. And I can understand why. No one posts about the doors that slam in your face. You only hear about the doors that open, but trust me, you can’t get the win without the losses. I wonder how many baseball players would quit if they didn't know the law of averages?Knowing the law of averages is what helps produce stability and resiliency. Otherwise, why would you keep trying if you are only getting one hit out of ten tries? No one wants to tell you about the pain, but the pain is part of the victory.

So keep knocking!

As usual, it sounds simple, but simple is not always so easy to do. In addition to knowing your law of averages, you also need to know your Shape and the answer to these two questions:

1. What does your Shape need to keep going?

2. What does your Shape need to bounce back?

Below are three lines of a poem that I had to memorize and recite in front of my sixth grade class:

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

'Tis a lesson you should heed.

Try, try, again.

What would make you put forth the effort to "try, try, again?" The answer to this question is directly related to your primary Shape. See the next Shape Talk post entitled, Bouncing Back, for more.

- Susan Hite, CEO and Innovator of Shapes powered by PsychoGeometrics, susanhite@psychogeometrics.com