Time to Play Offense

Good morning!

There are about 45 days left in the year and you can still put your stamp on 2020.

No, it didn’t go as planned (if you knew this was going to happen, you have some explaining to do!), but it never does. This year was just a bit different, but it doesn’t mean it was a waste.

Over the past 7-8 months, do you feel like you’ve been playing defense in your life?

We can all relate.

You have spent your time protecting yourself, protecting your job, and trying to at least keep things in your life as normal as possible.

As a business owner, that’s exactly what we had to do. We had to play defense but now as we head into the final 45 days, if you haven’t started playing offense in your life, it’s time to start.

If you haven’t noticed, I love using sports metaphors because we can learn so many great lessons from sports.

Defense is a critical part of most team sports and without it, you aren’t going to win. You have to have offense to win though. You can defend all day and try to hold the opponent from scoring but if you aren’t attacking yourself and looking to score, your best outcome is a tie.

There are times when ties are almost like wins, and winning surely isn’t everything, but if you are in a protective, defensive mode all of the time, you’re always backpedaling.

For my football fans out there, if you’re a cornerback, you’re almost always backpedaling trying to keep the ball away from the defender. You are reacting to the quarterback and the receiver. In life, if you’re just reactive to everything, your best bet is a tie and status quo.

Offense is being proactive. Offense is growing. Offense is attacking your goals and moving forward.

If you are on defense all of the time, how are you going to improve?

You must start taking control and stop waiting for the perfect time. Perfect doesn’t exist and it’s up to you to make things happen. If you want to finish 2020 strong, it’s time to start taking control and attacking. Want to be healthier? Attack your workouts a little harder, attack your nutrition, attack your sleep habits. It just isn’t going to happen. You must act and take control.

One of my favorite mantras is “When one door closes, find another door.” Doors are going to close throughout your life. This isn’t the first time it’s ever happened and it won’t be the last, but there are other doors and sometimes you just have to go find one to open. This is playing offense. Don’t wait for the door to open for you. Maybe this year

If you look back over the past eight months, there are going to be some losses. Those losses are in the past though. The past is the past. Learn from it and move on. The more time spent dwelling on the past is more time wasted that you could be spending on creating the life you want. We can sulk and feel sorry for ourselves all we want but at some point you have to get over your failures. Imagine in another eight months if you chose to learn from the past, worry about the future, and play some offense in your life. What would that look like?

How are you going to start playing more offense in your life?