Play Offense, Not Defense.

If you listen to the Podcast you might know this: Drew is a total American football nut. He watches it, knows everything, hosts NFL parties and tells me to look up players that I can’t even remember the name of 2 nanoseconds later.

(Yesterday he mentioned I should look up JJ Watt, but I remembered it as Blue Wyatt, or so I thought but that’s actually Superfruit’s cat. #mypersonalityinanutshell)

Andrew and I were recording the podcast (online Wednesday) where we discussed our book of the month: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

We were talking about one of the habits ‘be proactive, not reactive.’ It’s basically ‘stop reacting to whatever, start acting based on what you want and what’s important to you’.

Andrew compared it to football. Normally I totally space out at sports’ analogies, but this caught my attention.

“You gotta play offense, not defense” he said. “Instead of reacting to the other players and their tactics, you gotta make the play yourself. Go for the ball. Play offense, not defense.”

See, when we’re playing defense, we’re just responding. To urgencies, to threats, to plays by others.

We’re just reacting to our surroundings. We are just saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or ‘I guess so’ to the options provided to us by others. We’re just putting out fires, dealing with whatever is thrown at us, just because it’s there. It’s wait and see, and then deal.

But when we play offense, we go out in the field and we bring our A-game, making the plays ourselves.

We go for what we want, we actively go out and search out the opportunities. Instead of waiting for what will happen, we make something happen.

When you play offense, you think about what YOU want, what you think is a good idea, an opportunity, something in your personal vision or mission that needs to be realised.

How about you start playing offense a little more, darling?

Be proactive.

Throw the ball.

Make the play.

See you out there.

(Scrubbing off the black eyeshadow was a bitch, so well done Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette. And thanks Andrew for running with my blog post idea and thanks Vin for taking the picture)

Have a great week.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

9 comments

  1. I’m reading the 7 Habits and the moment and it’s changing the way I look at life! Can’t wait for the podcast, I’m curious to hear what you think about it!

    1. Hi Xavi,

      One of my favourites. Only it is not an opposing thought. Be like water is about being. About the self and the clearing of the mind. The two can easily coexist. Bruce Lee says that when I face an opponent, I have no fear because I have made up my mind. That is what this post is about. Remember, water can flow, but it can also crash..