Reader alert: [I wrote this back when Lenny Dykstra was playing for the Mets. But the truth still applies.] No offense, but Lenny Dykstra doesn’t look like much of an athlete. He looks more like some team’s mascot. Or like the guy who wears that silly chicken suit and does cartwheels around stadiums. The kid can’t stand much more than five-seven. That little Dutch boy is the starting center fielder for the National League New York Mets. Nicknamed “Nails”—as in “tough as” and “harder than.”

Who would’ve ever guessed it? Out of the blue came this nobody. He had spent his youth working for his dad in the quiet, rugged outdoors. Now, suddenly, he was the most famous man in the country. But he couldn’t wait to retreat to the hills where life was simple and uncluttered.

Flying ace Chuck Yeager has written a book with an inviting title: Press On! A guy with his adventurous background, plus a chest full of medals to prove it, probably has a lot to say about “pressing on.” Few will ever know the thrill of breaking sound barriers, but all of us live with the daily challenge of pressing on. The question is how?