Play The Game

There’s a saying in sports, “That’s why they play the game on the field, not on paper.” This means that when a team’s roster isn’t particularly impressive, the team doesn’t look good “on paper”, but often the underdog will rise to the occasion and meet the challenge of a highly touted opponent. They chose to play the game on the field, rather than accept what all the analyists had to say. It’s the proverbial David and Goliath. When you look at the pure statistics, David shouldn’t have stood a chance - but he got “on the field” and played - and he won.

As you go through life, it can be easy to sit on the sidelines not playing the game. You look at the statistics, whatever they might be, and think to yourself that there is no way you can win this game. You are stuck in a rut and there is nothing that you can do to get it out of it, so why even bother playing? If that’s the mentality that you’re bringing to your life, you should stop the pity party and change your mentality as soon as possible.

Seemingly every year there is a sports team that captures our imagination by being unreasonable, overcoming great odds and rising to the top. These past few months saw The Colorado Rockies win 21 of their final 22 games and make a run through the playoffs - until they got to the World Series. They did win the World Championship, but they went a lot further than anyone ever imagined. If you went back to the beginning of September and read the news articles, you would have thought The Rockies were destined to be losers.

The next time you encounter a possible hurdle on your way to success, don’t be discouraged. Ask yourself if you are playing the game on the field, or if you are letting the statistics get in your way. If The Colorado Rockies had believed the statistics back in September, they would have given up and finished in last place. Instead of accepting their predetermined fate, The Rockies got on the field and played their hearts out. That’s more than most people do.