Captain of the Ship

If you take a quick look at the definition of the word captain on google, it will tell you that it’s a noun and that it means the person in charge of a ship. But if you take a closer look and you click on the button that says, “more definitions”, lots of other definitions come up, but two that I want to focus on. One says, “the leader of a team, especially in sports”. Two says “a powerful or influential person in a particular field”.  Growing up the only definition I knew was the one about sports. The way I tell the story is that on the day I was born, my parents told me about God. On the second day, they told me about the New York Yankees. The Yankees have been around since 1903, back then they were the New York Highlanders. Before the season began this year, they named Aaron Judge as the 16th official captain of the team. The Yankee are by far the most successful team in the history of baseball. The Yankees have won 27 championships, The Cardinals are next with 11 championships. Even if you add in the other three major sports, they still have the most championships. That means that in 120 years, the most successful franchise in sports history decided that only 16 people were worthy enough to be called captain. Even as a young kid, I knew how important that title was. In my lifetime, the Yankees have technically had seven captains. Four of them were when I was the age of eleven or younger though. That leaves me three to really focus on. The biggest thing that I can say that I have taken away from all three of them, is how they carry themselves. The media is all over them, the fans are all over them. They always keep their cool. They always have well thought out answers. They somehow find a way to answer a question honestly, but not be harsh or hurtful. When someone asks them about a struggling teammate, they know how to acknowledge the obvious, but still be a good teammate. Behind closed doors, they address bad behavior, and they remind people how to act. They also know when the team is struggling and needs a kick in the butt. How do they do all this? I have no idea because they make sure that it happens behind closed doors. When I was younger, I dreamed of having a home office one day and in that office would be pictures of all the Yankee captains. While I was in a position to make decisions, I wanted to be surrounded by the best leaders I had ever heard about. All that leads me to the second definition. A powerful person in a particular field. When I think about the word captain, I automatically think of the person steering the ship. This definition doesn’t say that they must be the one steering the ship. It says they have to have influence. How many of us have influence in our daily lives? If I do have influence, am I carrying myself in a way that people will want to follow? Do I handle things behind closed doors? When people are all over me, do I handle it correctly? Am I able to light a fire under someone when they need it? I talked before about slumps and self-reflection. I believe this article is a result of that. I stepped away; I did some self-reflection. I reevaluated what kind of captain I am being. As much as I love baseball, when I think about being a captain, I think about a ship. If I think about it as a ship, I can think about things like the direction I am going. I can think about the other people on the ship, and even about the cargo I am carrying. It also gives me the freedom to throw things overboard. We all have lots of baggage that we carry with us everywhere we go. Sometimes we need to realize that the baggage we have can sink the ship. It might be time to throw it overboard and start over. A new week is here, for some people a new year is coming up. How can we start fresh? How can we look at everything we are doing and decide if we want to continue to carry ourselves that way. I need to work on my communication. I need to go light some fires; I need to be the captain of my ship!