Motivation Quote by Yogi Berra

"It's pretty far, but it doesn't seem like it" is classic Yogi Berra: a line that sounds like a verbal pratfall until you realize it describes how athletes actually survive impossible distances. On its face, the sentence contradicts itself. In practice, it captures a locker-room epistemology: you don’t conquer the whole stretch, you conquer the next few feet.

Berra’s intent isn’t philosophical in the academic sense; it’s practical, almost protective. Baseball is a sport of repetition and failure, where the outfield fence and the long season both loom like a dare. Saying something is "pretty far" acknowledges the objective reality - the deep fly ball, the road trip, the grind - while "it doesn't seem like it" reframes that reality into something playable. It’s mental ergonomics: shrink the intimidating thing until your body can do its job.

The subtext is confidence without bravado. Not "that’s not far" (a macho lie), but "it won’t feel far" (a mental adjustment). The trick is perception. Distance, pressure, even time are experienced, not just measured, and Berra’s off-kilter phrasing mirrors the way attention works under strain: the moment narrows, the task becomes manageable, and what looked enormous turns into routine.

Context matters, too: Berra’s "Yogi-isms" weren’t carefully polished aphorisms; they were the byproduct of a mid-century sports celebrity speaking in public constantly, unfiltered. That’s why the line endures. It’s a rough-edged mantra for performance culture before anyone called it mindset.