Give Me an “O” for Offense
Let’s face it: It’s hard to score when you’re playing defense. All-stars play defense for one reason — to get back on offense. They do whatever it takes to block the shot, intercept the
pass and get the outs so they can get back to scoring points.
When you’re playing offense you are in the game. No, you can’t play offense all of the time, but most people spend the majority of their time going back and forth. They take one step forward on offense and two steps backwards on defense, never achieving the results they desire.
Why is this?
On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being “things are utterly miserable” and 10 being “things couldn’t be more wonderful”), most of us live and perform at around 5 (“things are tolerable”). But 5 is probably the worst place to be. Things aren’t great, but they’re not awful, either. Maybe we sell just enough to get all the bills paid each month. Maybe we make just enough calls to meet our quota. We have one foot in the game and one on the sidelines. We know we should do more but there isn’t enough pain — enough anxiety — to force us into making a change.
Then something happens that pushes us over the edge. The banker calls to tell us we’re $3,000 overdrawn on our checking account. Our boss tells us we’ve missed quota for the second month in a row. We reach the point where we’re fed up with the situation; enough is enough. We decide we’re not going to live this way anymore — not another day, not another minute. Have you ever had one of these moments in your life?
If you have, and you made the decision to make some positive changes and follow through, that’s great. But in the long run, that is not how we want to live our professional, or personal, lives. That’s living life in reaction, on the defense. Your environment forced you to take action and let go of whatever was keeping you on the bench. When you live in reaction, you’re not in control of your life, of your success — life is in control of you.
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