As we move through this year's World Series, I began thinking: Business is like baseball. It offers lots of options, many decisions, and requires you to play on a team. You can’t win on your own; you don’t lose by yourself. It starts with desire and ends with a variety of powerful experiences.

In life and in business, everyone is on a team. Actually, we are on several teams! Teams, like businesses and individuals, compete. On a baseball team, you have 9 players on the field at one time but there are lots of other players on the team. Everyone has a role, along with responsibilities that make impact and drive results. It is not just the players on the field: the coaches, the sports therapists and doctors, the manager(s), the batboy, the field crew, and even the bench all come together for one powerful and common purpose (vision): TO WIN!

Management defines the vision; the coaching team determines the strategies and the players' job is to execute. In baseball, the mission is about coming together to win each game while entertaining the fans. It is about selling seats, hot dogs and caps and creating energy that energizes an entire community. Everyone contributes, including the fans. It is more than winning the pennant…that symbol of the measurable goal! To get there, a good team and coaching staff knows that maximizing the potential of each player while choreographing the entire team’s efforts gets you to the win.

Whether you win or lose is a reflection of how you play. How we play reflects how we live. While some people play full out, others do not. Those that choose to give less than their all miss out on their real potential… and perhaps the real possibilities in their life.

Key to how we play is how we think. Our thoughts are a reflection of our beliefs and our scripts. Each of us has "little people" in our minds that run our scripts. Some of the scripts are good: "you are a good human being," while other scripts are negative like "you are no good at…" How we live is a reflection of our choices and behaviors and these choices are just reflections of what we truly believe (think). Ultimately, how you manage your business and its growth is a reflection of what you think.

For you to grow your business or make any change, you must first step out of your comfort zone and consider the possibilities.

To change the quality of our lives and our experiences, all we really have to do is change our way of thinking. Instead of negative scripts that disempower us, we can replace them with more freeing and empowering scripts that support us.

You control the choices you make and the way you feel about the events that occur in your life and work. That is why some people persevere against difficult odds and others who have been given many opportunities do not accomplish much in their limited time here on earth.

Just like in baseball… the game of life — and business — is a reflection of your choices.

"Business is like baseball" is an 8-part blog series found on aspiremarketing.com. Catch the instant replay here or fast forward to the Aspire post-game rundown.