Had dinner with my daughter Kimmie and her boyfriend Timmy (I’m not kidding) tonight. Timmy is a competitive paintball player who competed at the national level in 2007, so I’m assuming he’s pretty darned good.

While we were eating he mentioned that he had read one of my Softball Magazine articles — the most recent on making the most of what you have instead of fretting over what you don’t. He told me it had actually helped him in his approach to paintball.

You see, Timmy is short and rather slightly built. He said he would often wish he was taller so he could shoot over the barriers, and that it bothered him he wasn’t. After reading the article, though, he started thinking about it and realized he is very fast, and can move low to the ground — two assets in the level of paintball he plays. He said he’s learned to embrace those things, and not worry about the height thing.

Now, sure, he could’ve just been kissing the ass of the father of his girlfriend. But he seemed sincere. In any case, many of us spend a lot of time worrying about what we don’t have instead of working with what we do and creating opportunities with it. It was great to see an example of someone who took that advice to heart and used it to improve his game.