The Football Metaphor
Posted on January 17, 2020 by Charles Mann, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
A metaphor using football as a comparison to living a successful life.
Football has been my favorite sport for as long as I remember. Several years ago I was trying to come up with a way to motivate one of my sons. He is a fan of football as well, and what I came up with was “Life is Like a Football Game”. At the time he was about 16 and I wanted to show him a different way to look at his life. We often go back to it and laugh at how it has played out in both of our lives. At the time of this writing, he is mid 2nd quarter and I am at the beginning of the 4th.
Recently I thought I would go back and really consider this life metaphor, here are my thoughts
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“Life Is Like A Football Game”
Football has rules, Life has laws
Both require strategy
Both require training
Both have a reward system
Both have pay structures that are determined by our:
1. ABILITY
2. COMMITMENT
3. PERSEVERANCE
4. DISCIPLINE
Who we are born to (drafted) is not determined by us; we have a shot of going to an “up and comer”, an expansion team or one that may have never competed for a Championship.
Sometimes you’re on offense and other times on defense.
We have four quarters and each quarter has its flavor;
1st quarter: Day 1 – 18 yrs. – Our 1st step thru adolescence
Our formative years: We start to develop the beliefs, behaviors, and habits that we are going to play this game with.
2nd quarter: 21-39 yrs. Infant Adult to Adolescent Adult
We go from those teenage years to our adulthood, we may or may not had “success” but here we are regardless. ADJUSTMENT POINT!!!!!
3rd quarter: 40- 59 yrs. – With adjustments made, we are settling into our life as it is. We have scored and been scored upon.
4th quarter: 60 – 00:00 – We check to see if we are winning or losing. Are we comfortable with the score or do we need to play more offense or play a tighter defense?
In each quarter, life is either our teammate or opponent. How we win is determined by our:
1. PREPARATION
2. EVALUATION
3. IMPLEMENTATION
4. ADJUSTMENTS
5. SUPPORT
We will score, defend and advance based on our game plan even if some of the plays are weak. We compete and in the end if we weren’t the best we are still satisfied because we competed.
The rules of life are generally fair, though at times we may get a bad call. We may be called for “off-sides”, interference, or a personal foul due to a lack of focus. Sometimes we show up unprepared and get blown out. Other times we think too highly of a play and it’s returned against us.
At times, we have our fans (Family and Friends) cheering and celebrating us, other times, booing us off the field. Our fans are diehard, they support us when we win, lose or tie. They support us when we make questionable decisions on who we bring on the team and often the direction of the team. They believe in us and would love for us to win the Championship and celebrate our collective success.
Yep, Life is Like Football! Many times, a few adjustments in our preparations will take us from a loveable loser team to a CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM, our fans will be proud, our teammates will be committed, and our management will be focused on continuing a winning tradition.
Well, time for a few adjustments while I still have time on the clock!!
WHERE ARE YOU?
