The best football teams of the year played in the Superbowl a little over a week ago. It was a pretty exciting game that went into overtime with a huge comeback by the Patriots for the win. What if we compared your life to a Superbowl. How might that look?
Superbowl
For starters the teams in the Superbowl each have a pretty clear goal. It’s either drive the ball into the end zone, or prevent the other team from doing the same. Many people don’t have clear goals in their life.
What would football look like without any goals? What if there weren’t end zones? I imagine the players might go out and toss the ball around a few times. They might bring a picnic basket out and enjoy the grass. They might do some exercise to keep themselves fit. It would be somewhat similar to how many of our lives look – activity without lifelong goals, doing what seems good in the moment. It certainly wouldn’t be the exciting game we enjoy today.
In your life, do you have clear goals? When you wake up in the morning, do you know what you are working toward? Are your goals just for this “play” or do you have your eye on your “end zone”?
Your Life
Sometimes people get scared around setting goals. I know I have. What if the goal is too far away, and I fail at it? How will others perceive me if I don’t meet my goals? How will I feel about myself if I don’t meet my goals? So sometimes people would rather not have any goals at all.
Sometimes people are scared around being visible. What if I get noticed? Might that make me a target? If I become famous, does that mean I can’t walk into a grocery store any more, or enjoy a contemplative time at the local Starbucks?
This might happen in football too, but we certainly don’t hear about it much. We don’t hear teams say, “This game was good, but we’re really not aiming for the Superbowl. We’re not sure we want that kind of attention. And hey, we don’t want to say, ‘we’re going to the Superbowl,’ and then not accomplish that.”
What could your life look like if you lived it like a Superbowl – you had a clearly defined, “end zone” for your life, and each day you strategically planed ways to get closer to that goal? What could you accomplish?
Most people we look up to and admire didn’t get there by accident. They didn’t wake up one morning and say, “Woah! How’d I get here?” Usually they got to where they are by a lot of directed steps along the way.
