JohnA Passaro's Blog, page 4

The Banana Peel

Dreams.

The closer you get to them sometimes the harder they are to achieve.

Even if you do everything right they can cruelly evaporate in a city second.

While watching the game yesterday between Chatham and Orleans the shortstop from Orleans stood out.

He was smooth.

He had a gun for an arm and a vacuum for a glove.

The best way to describe him was he was silk.

After doing some research on him I came to understand he was a 3x All State player from Texas, who originally went to Texas Tech then transferred to a Community college – and clawed his way to Oklahoma State.

He had a good season this year and accordingly, he got an invite to play ball on the Cape for a couple of months in the summer.

It was his opportunity to shine and showcase his talent in front of major league scouts.

Unbelievable opportunity.

And from the game I saw he was doing just that.

While he was on deck, I was having a conversation with someone how this must be Heaven for these guys.

They get to play ball, in a beautiful atmosphere and environment playing in front of fans who appreciate the game and scouts who could get them to the big leagues.

My last comment was I hope they realize what they have.

Then – Boom.

A 94 MPH fastball on the hand.

HBP.

He had to leave the game.

He probably will have to leave the Cape.

The way the hand was hanging It looked like it was broken.

Just like his dreams.

Just like that.

I hate when the banana peel appears out of no where.

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That Feeling of Home

When I was a young dad, and my kids where 2 & 4 years old, it was common for me and my wife to buy a pizza and eat it as a family on the pitching mound of the East Moriches Little League Field.

I feel at home on a baseball field.

I’ve been to some great fields.

I’ve been to The East Cobb Complex, I’ve coached in over 1,000 games at Baseball Heaven, I’ve Lived at Cooperstown Dreams Park for many summer sessions (12 in total) – and at every wrestling tournament I’ve ever attended I’ve always snuck out the back door to check out the baseball field.

Baseball fields give me a special feeling.

It’s a feeling I seek out in my life now.

It’s hard to explain.

It’s also hard to explain that out of all the places I could go to get away from life for a few days that I’d look to travel 7 hours just to seek that feeling on another baseball field.

This time in Cape Cod.

Dominate Your Way to a State Championship

The way you think .

That is the answer to the question,

“What is the most important quality I need to have to become a successful wrestler?”

It is not talent or being a hard worker or even surrounding yourself with good people – don’t get me wrong – these aspects are all extremely important – but eventually you will be alone and you will be faced with a fight or flight decision in a big spot.

The way you think.

That will make all of the difference to the outcome at hand.

Do me a favor – In your mind think through all of your practices you ever had in your life – think about all of the drilling, the live sessions, the beatings the grueling conditioning – add up all to that time and compare it to the time you have been trained how to think.

Massive gap in time correct?

It bewilders me that the most important aspect of a wrestlers true success, the way he thinks, gets the least amount of focus.

My passion is to make a direct impact on a young athletes journey toward success.

I love to coach.

To me there is nothing more pleasing than to be a small part of a wrestlers overall success as a wrestler and as a person.

I have been a part of a few wrestlers journeys and I found it very rewarding.

That is why I am committed to my new project.

Dominate Your Way to a State Championship

How is this done?

It is done through communication – phone, text, FaceTime, any form that works for you.

First I listen – I listen too what you want – what your goals are , what you are saying, what you’re having a problem with, what your obstacles are – and then I teach you how to solve those problems and obstacles by the way you think.

Sounds simple right?

It is.

But it is also extremely difficult to put into play.

It takes time, guidance and reassurance.

To learn to think like a champion is the greatest improvement you can make this off-season.

HIRE ME

That’s direct to the point.

My program is designed to make dramatic improvements in the way you think, which will improve your belief, confidence and enthusiasm for the sport of wrestling.

$20 a week – full access to phone/text/FaceTime/videos Overall Thinking coach.

24 hours a day – whenever you need to adjust your thought process – or whenever you need to align yourself to think like a champion – a full week of thought adjustment – motivation – inspiration – belief – confidence and enthusiasm for only $20.

That is not $20 per call or hour or day – that is $20 for the week.

How does it work?

Sign up with the link below.

It is a PayPal link that will enroll you in the $20 per week “Dominate Your Way to a State Championship” program.

Each week $20 will be automatically sent to keep you enrolled in the program to continue to have access to me through any communication you choose.

There are no time commitments. You can cancel anytime. If you need a week of confidence building – stay a week, if you prefer a long term approach where I am with you for your entire season – that works also.

Whatever you choose.

Whatever works for you.

GET STARTED BY ENROLLING HERE

If you have any questions – reach out to

John Passaro

631-807-3266

johnpassaro@me.com

DOMINATE YOUR WAY TO A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP PROGRAM

Maximize Being Alive

Welcome to TODAY.

The absolute most important day of your life.

It is yesterdays tomorrow.

It is tomorrow’s yesterday.

It is now.

There is one thing that I know for sure, and that is one day you will wish you had another today to live.

Today is that day.

Live it now.

Don’t wait for tomorrow,

Don’t carry yesterday.

You have a fresh unlived day.

What is better than that?

So live.

Love.

Enjoy.

Maximize being alive.

That’s what today wants.

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Learning How to Count

As a child I learned how to count by adding and subtracting.

As an adult I learned how to count by impacting other peoples lives.

Jazz Chisolm on Rare 30/30 Pace

Jazz Chisolm of the Marlins, with 12 HR & 10 SB, is on pace to become only the 44th player in Major League history to go 30-30 – 30 SB & 30 HR in the same season.

To put that into its proper context –
There are approximately 400 offensive players per season – with a history that spans 155 years.

That is 43/62,000

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Walk

No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life.

There may be countless trails and bridges who would gladly carry you across; but only at the price of forgoing yourself.

There is one path in the world that no one can walk but you.

Where does it lead?

Don’t ask, walk.

________

Frederick Nietzsche

Schopenhauer Educator

https://amzn.to/3xhxSOy

________

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You Get Nothing if it’s Not On Paper

March 7th 2013

9 Years ago today I hit send and self-published 6 Minutes Wrestling with Life.

I had only 1 mission – to make more good than bad come from my daughters tragedy.

My heart is filled to know over the last 9 years more good has entered the world by my writing my memoir than not writing it. I still have a long way to go to accomplish my mission.

By writing the book I have met so many great people – been introduced to so much pain – I have felt so much empathy – and in some small way attempted to give hope and belief to those experiencing trauma in their lives.

I am glad I wrote the book and will continue to attempt to make more good than bad come into this world.

Today – 6 Minutes Wrestling with Life is FREE to download on Amazon.

Below is the events that transpired that became the catalyst to me hitting send.

January 14th, 2013

It’s time to listen to my inner voice.

So here is how my brain works.

Yoalnda Vega appears on my TV the other night to pull the Lottery numbers. My wife is in the other room – so I yell out “Here are my numbers (That I didn’t play) for tonights Lottery – 9 7 6 12.

I started to say my 6 numbers thinking that it was Lotto.

After I yelled out my first four numbers the first ball goes up the shoot:

9

Wow that’s weird.

Second ball 7

You got to be kidding me.

I yell to BettyJane come here – she does but she thinks I am playing a joke on her by delaying the broadcast and that I already know the numbers.

I’m not.

Third Ball – 6

“Please don’t do this to me,” is my first thought.

My relief is that I currently realize that this drawing is not for Lotto but it is for the pick 4 and pick 3 drawings.

Fourth Ball – 1

Wow, that makes me feel a little better.

“Now for the pick 3 numbers,”

I hear from the TV:

First ball – 2

The chill goes through my body as I just realized that I, on the spur of the moment, just picked 9 7 6 12 as my numbers and the first 5 numbers that went up that shoot were 9 7 6 1 2.

I look at BettyJane, she is still 50/50 on whether she thinks that I am pulling one over on her.

I convince her that I’m not.

She bluntly states, “You get nothing if its not on paper.”

A few hours go by and it dawns on me.

I just got my answer.

You see inside my head for the longest time, I have been wanting to write. I always knew since I was 6 that I would write.

Now its time.

Most people would be mad that they got nothing for picking 5 numbers.

I look at it that I got my answer.

Write.

“You get nothing if its not on paper.”

I now play the lottery by subscription mostly because I never check the winning numbers and it is my way of making sure that if I win the lottery that I would know about it (There would be nothing worse than winning and not knowing).

A yearly subscription costs $2 a week or $104 dollars a year.

Playing the lottery by subscription is amazing, I really don’t have to win the big prize to win, because every once in a while I will get an email from NY State Lottery with the headline – “NY Lottery Subscription Prize Notification” and for that brief moment my mind plays the “What if” game.

This email always comes when I need it the most, when my mind is stuck in what Zig Ziglar would call some “Stinkin thinking”.

These emails arrive just at the right time and are like bumpers keeping me out of the gutter of life – they get me back on track.

They have always been notifications to me that I won $1 or $2 dollars, but they have always been the most valuable $1 or $2 dollars that I have ever won.

A new spinoff from this phenomenon has proved to be even more valuable to me and I believe it is what I originally wrote when I said,

“You get nothing if its not on paper.”

Here it is, every once in a while I receive an email from someone who has read “6 Minutes Wrestling With Life” and what they share with me touches me so deeply and it rejuvenates my soul.

These emails always come when I need them the most and now I realize that the “You get nothing if its not on paper” refers not to the riches of the lottery but the riches of the human spirit.

I have met such wonderful people in this journey and each of them in their own way has made me richer.

They say writing is cathartic, I totally agree.

Writing is also clarity.

It helps me understand what I don’t understand.

It makes me recognize there are forces at work bigger than I have ever imagined.

It makes me connect the dots.

And somehow, it has connected my soul to other souls.

And that is something.

Something, that has been one of the most fulfilling experiences in my life.

Today Is My Birthday – But It Is Not the Day I Became Alive

The evidence suggests Johannes Vermeer’s
Daughter Maria
Was his likely model and a crucial part of his art
When he painted the iconic
Girl With a Pearl Earring  

Today is my birthday. 

I have been on this earth for 57 years.

20,816 days to be exact.

Of which, I have been truly alive for only 4,535 of those days.

I no longer look at my birthday as the point of reference as to when I truly became alive in the timeline of my life.

I now look at my Re-Birth Day as that exact point.

4,535 days ago I became a member of the “Life-Changing Events Club” and I was welcomed into the inner circle of life.

4,535 days ago was the day my daughter lost oxygen to her brain for six minutes.

I call that day my Re-Birth Day.

You would think I would refer to that day as the day I died.

But I don’t.

I refer to that day as the day of my Re-Birth.

The day I was turned.

Converted.

The day I started becoming the best version of myself.

For it is the day as an adult that I woke up to what is truly important in life.

To appreciate the miraculous gift we have been given – life. 

That day I started to pull every ounce of invigoration out of life.

Each of my last 4,535 days on this earth has been super turbocharged.

Magnified.

Intense.

Memorable.

Each day has been deeply branded into my soul to produce the person I am today.

The best version of myself that I have ever been.

I have been a Life-changing event club member for only 22% of my life.

I don’t remember what it is like to not be a club member anymore.

Although I would do anything to change the circumstances that made me a member, I would never renounce my membership.

By design or disaster, I would recommend you become a member.

Hopefully by design.

But even if by disaster, realize membership into this exclusive club is a gift.

And your present is a new perspective on life and it’s value.

Club members value and prioritize the human spirit and their number one priority is to rekindle it in others when they see it dwindling.

I beg of you, don’t ever let life erode your spirit and when you have the opportunity to revive it in others, do so. If you see something, say something. As the thing you might want to say to someone and don’t might be the exact thing they needed to hear and didn’t.

And please don’t wait for a life-changing event to become the best version of yourself.

Truly live.

Each day, be reborn anew.

Each day have your feelings magnified.

Each day have your memories burned into your soul.

Set out to improve the quality of other people’s lives and the universe will improve yours.

Do it now.  

By design.

So, live.

Fully.

Intensely.

Impactfully.

My only wish is that you and I magnify the human spirit in others and the reward we receive is to have our spirit renewed in return.

This is a priceless gift.

No treasure can compare to it.

I can’t wait to feel the intense magnification of life, to share it with you and to somehow, someway know when you need a rekindling of your human spirit.

As a club member, today may be my birthday, but more importantly, every new day has become my Re-birth Day.

I beg of you, don’t wait for disaster to strike to start to truly live.

By design or disaster.

Choose by design, it is much less painful.

Chapter Excerpt from Strange Angels – Paperback Only $10

There Is An Open Circle

Every wall is a door.  

Emerson 

​ As a teenager, my goal and mission in life was to win a New York State High School Wrestling Championship. 

I committed myself to a lifestyle, I made the sacrifices, I put in the time, I starved myself, shaved my head, I had the hunger, the desire, and the determination, but I came up short. 

For many years after it seemed like I got nothing out of my six years of total dedication to the sport,  

that the trade-off of what I gave and what I got in return was way out of whack. 

I hated wrestling for it. 

To put every ounce of my soul into achieving something, and to get nothing out of it in return,  was beyond my comprehension and unreconcilable to me. 

I couldn’t justify it in my head. 

I felt this way for twenty-six years. 

And then one-day adversity struck my life. 

And slowly but surely, I started to realize just how much the sport of wrestling had given back to me.  

Much more than I ever knew. 

When life throws you to your back, you need to know how not to get pinned, get off your back, and do enough to make up the difference to win. 

“There is an open circle.” 

This mantra is what my high school coaches would say to me during wrestling practice when they knew I was physically exhausted and was about to rest for a moment.  

There was an open circle on the wrestling mat, and if I was interested, I could get out there and do more. 

This mantra keeps ringing in my ears. 

To achieve the results you want, you need to do the things others are not willing or able to do. 

“There is an open circle.” 

Meaning there is still more that you could do.  

Don’t rest now; this is where the difference is made.  

To work when you are mentally and physically exhausted gets you to the next level. 

“There is an open circle.” 

When I heard those words back in high school,  I would immediately ignore my fatigue and realize there was still more I could do. 

“There is an open circle.” 

Today, when I reach the point of physical and mental exhaustion in my daily battle verse life,  

I silently say to myself,  

“There is an open circle.” 

And my wrestling muscle memory kicks in,  

“There is no time for rest. 

It is time to get back to work. 

There is an open circle.” 

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