I played a lot of baseball in my youth and most of the time I played shortstop. As an infielder, your job on defense is to field the ground balls hit your way and make the appropriate throw. If you’re familiar with baseball, you’ve seen this done countless times. On TV, these plays appear routine and mundane. But, as with most refined skills, it’s actually a lot harder than it looks.

Depending on how the ball is hit, it will dribble across the grass and dirt on a unique path and pattern of speed and bounces. The trick to fielding the ball is to catch it at the right time. This is either slightly before or immediately after it bounces. What a fielder needs to avoid is the “in-between hop”, that moment after the ball bounces but before it reaches the crest of its flight. This is when the ball is hardest to judge and so fielders are taught to position themselves to avoid this situation. However, when done incorrectly, it is referred to as letting the ball play you.

When this occurs, it is usually the result of inaction, not the wrong action. A player can always move up or move back to adjust his position. But, if he doesn’t adjust, if he doesn’t reposition himself to properly field the ball, he’s often faced with an in-between hop and is at risk of having the ball play him. Instead of influencing the situation, he is left to deal with whatever comes his way.

The lesson and the parallels are fairly obvious. I haven’t played baseball in 20 years, yet a week doesn’t pass where I don’t remind myself to not let the ball play me. In almost every aspect of my life, I have the option to act. Large or small, I can choose how to approach any issue that arises and choosing to act will nearly always result in a better outcome than if I choose to do nothing.

Ignoring that noise coming from the engine won’t make it go away. Avoiding that tough client won’t dissolve the bad news you need to deliver. Stalling on an awkward conversation with your spouse won’t make things better at home.

You always have the choice. Each day you can choose to influence your circumstances or you can choose to let your circumstances influence you. You can’t control everything. But, you can fight to be in the right positions and you can scramble to avoid the wrong ones. Don’t leave yourself at the mercy of fate. Don’t let the ball play you.