A Game of Inches

As many of you may know, I'm a sports guy. I love sports. They are a huge part of my life. At any given moment of any day you can find me playing, watching, or talking about sports. It's one of the few things in life that makes perfectly good sense to me. It's cut and dry. You have a winner and a loser. There are no debates when it's all said and done. There are no comparisons to be made once a decision has been made on the field. (I'm getting really tired of this Kobe vs. Lebron vs. Lin HOOPla, just sayin') But I also feel that sports can be used as a way to relate with anything going on in your life. When I'm faced with a difficult decision... I think to myself, "self, it's 4th and 1... do you go for it, or take the sure points with a field goal?" While that may be over the heads of some of my readers, I'll explain. "4th and 1" is a common term used to describe a tight spot. If you go for the first down, you are at risk of not making it and turning the ball over to the opposition. If you kick the field goal, you give up the chance to score more points. Which, we all know can come back to haunt you.

I really started to think about this more the other day when watching "Any Given Sunday". It's a movie about a football team, who faces adversity, and destroys it. I'm not going to run the movie for anyone who hasn't seen it. There is a portion of the movie in which the coach (played by Al Pacino) gives a speech. It's a great speech. It talks about the ups and downs of life and how the smallest mistakes can cost us our hopes and dreams of ever being successful. He mentions that "life is a game of inches". I hear that and I think about how when faced with adversity or trying to reach a goal, we always look at the end results before looking at what we have to do to get there. In sports terms, we spend too much time at looking for the end zone. And instead of just taking the situation "inch by inch", we keep throwing the ball deep down the field hoping to luck up and find an open reciever for the quick touchdown. However, the problem with this.... interceptions. You put one huge amount of effort into something for a short amount of time hoping the optimum results and someone comes in and takes it away from you.

Now, there are thousands of various sports terms and theories that tie into my philosophies about life. However, I'm going to attack those piece by piece, inch by inch. What I'm really trying to say here, is that we all need to focus more on "the six inches, in front of your face" instead of trying to get to the goal-line in just one play. Take your time going down the field and avoid the turnovers.

*For reference (and entertainment) purposes, I have added this link to a YouTube video of the speech mentioned above. Enjoy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO4tIrjBDkk