“Why do you like football so much?” came the question from my Canadian friend this week after talking about the Superbowl and my “unusually passionate love” of playing flag football.
What does football mean to you?
Simply put, it’s a metaphor–a beautiful metaphor–for my life.
How do you know if you are better today than yesterday–that you actually achieved something with your time, energy, and skills?
Set a goal. Accomplish something. Anything. Like making your bed every day. It really makes a difference, seriously:
So how do you design a life that can allow you to test and to know if what you are doing is working towards a goal?
Try Competition
We are all drawn to it at some point. Competition allows for the creation of simple rules in a complex world and the determination of a clear winner and loser when life is not as black and white. Competition is one of the simplest mental models to guide daily action. It helps align yourself in pursuit of a goal; the aggregation of those congruent goals provide a sense of purpose in life.
This aspiration to be a champion is used by coaches from the very first moment a person signs on to be a player. It lines the lyrics of some of the world’s most popular songs. And paints with posters the walls of bedrooms and locker rooms. It is a universal aspiration and tool for motivation. Maybe not to win a football game but to harness that essence and energy of what it means to be a champion–to be better today than yesterday in pursuit of your goal, in pursuit of your purpose.
This motivation leads to a commitment and desire for winning that manifests itself into an unyielding desire to improve, to overcome obstacles, and to never give up. Short term sacrifice for long term gain.
Push yourself as far as you can because that will in-turn push the game to new heights.
And THAT is the resounding call to action that permeates all aspects of life, not just football: to live life to the fullest.
To face and overcome your fears. To do until you can do no more. For at that point, the world will be better off for it, for you in it.
Here I stand; I can do no other. -Martin Luther
There is no easier way to test yourself to see if you have achieved that goal than through physical competition. Nowhere else in life is winning so clearly observable. Nowhere else can skill be so easily highlighted and shared with the world. Where human potential is proved to be elevated to new heights. It’s not just football.
But pausing for a moment, is there a point at which this commitment is too much? Can overwhelming devotion and obsession towards a sport mar a good life? Is being so devoted to your craft a burden on your life?
Each person must make his/her own decision. Every person has his/her own unique path, unique purpose. This purpose passionately pursued provides no regret.
And that’s where watching elite athletes empowers us.
Regardless of the outcome of those individual players and teams, the lessons learned from watching them is personalized and applied to our own life’s purpose. It enables us to step into their shoes and live their competition; live their life as our own, as though we had committed ourselves so fully, so obsessively, so passionately.
It’s about the journey from life to death and how you acted on that journey.
For life is not a man-made competition. There are no clear winners or losers in life. There is no final scoreboard to look at when the whistle blows.
What matters then is what you did during the competition and how you reacted to the adversity you faced. Winning a race makes not a person successful in life, but what does is a success driven mindset that is developed while on that path.
For what passes on in perpetuity is not the act of winning a gold medal of some man-made competition, but rather the demonstration of the perpetually repeated theme innate to all human survival: that of overcoming adversities in life.
Every game makes a winner, but what is far more important for the annals of history is the story of how those who competed got there and the lessons learned by those facing both victory AND defeat.
So why do I like football so much? Because football is life.
Here’s to a great Superbowl 50 and the stories that surround all those on the Broncos and Panthers.
P.S. Where can you watch Superbowl 50 online? Here. or Here.