I am, Terrmel Sledge an ex Major League Baseball player who played in the major leagues for four years from 2004-2007 and overseas in japan for five more. Here is my story. What is my definition of Confidence? There is only one answer and that is to make sure you OUTWORK everyone.

I have made millions of dollars, I was one of the top 300 baseball players in the world at one time, I traveled the world to all over 40 states in the United States, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Japan, India, and Canada. I am also currently married going on our eighth year with two beautiful healthy children. With all this in my life before the age of 37 I found myself still not happy?

I have seen my sister die right in front of me from the disease called “Lupus.” She was only 25 years of age when she past away. My grandmother who raised me passed away the following year. The next year my other grandmother passed away and my grandfather the year after. To add insult to injury I didn’t get drafted in the MLB draft my junior year in college. I was baffled about the outcome because I was selected to the First All American team and helped carry my team to the College World Series that year. That really hurt! Lets just say it was a rough start for a young boy trying to become a man just turning 21 years of age. I know this isn’t nothing compared to what most people go through around the world. This is just my story.

I heard it a hundred times over and over about how material things don’t make you happy. What did I do when people told me that? I said, “F@$* Y$*%” to everyone and thought to myself, “I will prove all of you wrong!” As an athlete’s mind we are all set out to prove the whole world wrong by any means necessary. So that’s what I did! How did that turn out? Well, lets just say I was WRONG! Yep, stubborn men can sometimes grow up to and admit when they are wrong.

The whole moral of this story is I am happy to say after having everything I sought after in life I can be happy to say I achieved them all. Money, wife, kids, career, etc! What else could a man want at the age of 37? Is it man’s nature to always feel “Never Good Enough” or was I the only feeling like this?

What Is Confidence

All the things I have achieved in my life, I am most happy about these few…

1) Having God in my life. When I go to sleep at night I know and feel there is something bigger than me out there. I know this in my heart. I’m not here to preach to you about what religion is right or wrong, etc or if heaven and h*** exists. I do know one thing though, I do feel something out there taking care of my family and I every time I wake up and go to sleep everyday. Something is out there giving me exactly what my heart desires. I know that for sure. This is only my opinion and like I said I may be wrong and I have no problem with being wrong. One thing is for sure I am not afraid to voice my opinion. Not to anyone! This is my life and I only have one shot at it and it won’t be on the account of caring what others think.

2) Understanding my top priority in life is to be a general to my wife and kids TRYING MY HARDEST to get them to the top of that mountain of happiness. This is my job as a man. I can’t run or hide from it. I either man up or b**** out.

3) Acceptance. This is the hardest for me to understand. Excepting who God made me to be. Excepting all of my good qualities as well as my bad ones. Most of all excepting I am nowhere close to being PERFECT! I spent my whole life thinking I had to be perfect and that I why I cared so much about the opinion of others in my past. Now I just say, “F$@* Y$*@” to them all in my own head. Caring what others think is why I almost ruined my marriage. Caring what others think is why I made my baseball career extremely harder than it was suppose to be. Caring what others think is the same reasons why I disliked being a father. Meaning while I was trying to please people everyday it meant I didn’t have time to be a father to my kids. It meant I didn’t have time to try to be a decent husband to my beautiful, loving devoted fireball of wife I have. This is what I regretted the most. Now I can see what I put her through all these years. Most importantly now I understand if a man does not get along with his mate then it effects the entire family and the kids will sense every bit of the animosity between you. I now understand a man’s mate is the engine and key to the happiness of their family. This was one of the most difficult things for me to understand. I don’t know why. This is why I need to make sure I work on this everyday of my life.

I hated being a man and having to deal with the responsibilities God had given to me. Why me? I was a selfish man and still am. Everything has to happen for a reason though, right? How many times have you heard that Sh$%! Anyways, now being in position to understand all of these things in my life, which brings me to these two points.

1) I EXCEPT I WILL NEVER BE PERFECT

2) I EXCEPT LIFE WILL NEVER BE PERFECT

I thank God today for helping me except all of the ups and downs of my life. Dealing with all the people in my life who I felt let me down, dealing with deaths in my family, tearing my hamstring off the bone in Dodger Stadium my 2nd year in the big leagues, experiencing being broke three times in my life, etc. Most importantly I thank God for teaching me how to except me for who I am. Who am I? I am fighter that has made so many mistakes in my life. One thing is for sure is I will keep getting back up no matter how many times life knocks me down. I will dust myself off and keep fighting until I get the life my heart deeply yearns for. I will not quit and never quit on anything in my life. I would rather die before quitting! I will not waist my life on this earth not fighting for everything I desire in my heart! I choose the snatch and devour every obstacle that steps in front of me. I am not AFRAID anymore! I am not SCARED of what life brings me anymore!!! I learned to hit all my life issues head on! I now expect things to go wrong because I now understand Failures are the only thing I learn from. I now understand I cannot get better without “Failure.” Failure is my best friend. Perfection is not!

So don’t ever give up! If the words What Is Confidence pops in your head then you the answer is to OUTWORK everyone. This is the only thing that will make you know you are the best when you look in that mirror. No matter what hardships you may be going through in your life right now keep on trying to push through it and sooner or later I promise you something great will come out of it! I promise you! Don’t ever settle in life and fight for everything you believe in. Besides, you only get one chance at this life on earth so use it wisely. That’s my story.