NFL, that is. As an American, I was naturally underexposed to the real Fútbol (not that I’m knocking the NFL… it’s just there’s very little foot action going on, ya know)? But, I digress. As I watched my Broncos get pummeled on Sunday, I got to thinking about some aspects to the game that emulate real life problems and solutions. Here are 6 ways that we can learn life lessons from watching an NFL game.

1. Winner’s Never Quit, and Quitters Never Win. This is the most obvious lesson I think. If any of you happened to watch the sad, sad game in Denver you know exactly what I mean. It holds true in every game, and in every life situation. If you give up, or believe that you cannot improve your situation, you will inevitably create failure. Any successful team or individual will tell you that they succeeded because they never gave up and they always believed they could do it.

2. Pay Attention to your Quarterback. Your individual QB is your intuition. What happens when you fail to listen? It’s a false start, and you lose yardage. Just like in the game, if you fail to pay attention to your inner voice, eventually you’ll lose ground. It can be difficult sometimes to hear with all the crowd noise, but trust me. If you learn to tune out the external and listen to the internal, everything will click just as it should.

3. Read the Plays ahead of Time. I myself, feel for the middle linebacker. It’s a tough job… one of the toughest, really. He’s got to do a lot of reading and problem solving and he typically has only a few seconds to do it. If he gets it wrong, the defense could give up big yards… BUT, if he gets it right he has prevented a situation from getting out of control. In life, we must read the situation the same way. What are the possibilities? What is the likely outcome? If I make this choice, what are the benefits vs. the consequences, and are they acceptable? Lucky for us, life usually gives us a little more time than the play clock.

4. Penalty’s Suck. You might as well shoot yourself in the foot. In a game, it can mean having a glorious 60-yard pass for a touchdown taken away on a 3rd and 20 because some guy in the line decided to hold. Ughh. In real life, the consequences can be just as severe. Cheating, lying and stealing your way through life may bring you short gains, but in the long run you’ll pay for it. Let’s face it. In all honesty, you might successfully progress through life (or a game) doing this consistently, but it only takes the one time to ruin all the progress you might have made. While sometimes it pays to be a dirty player in the NFL, it almost never plays to live life that way.

5. Change-up Your Playbook. Nothing works forever. Sometimes, you have to make changes to see progress. Change is good! If a defense played zone coverage through an entire game they would get their asses kicked! You gotta change things up and keep the opponent on their toes. Life is the same way. If you do the same thing day in and day out, you’ll find yourself stagnant. Change something… change your routine, change your exercise schedule, pick up a new hobby. Whatever it takes to mix things up. Trust me, it’s good.

6. Sometimes, ya gotta go for it on 4th down. This isn’t always the best idea, because there’s inherent risk. But, when life gets to the point where you feel as though you have nothing to lose… do it. Take the leap, believe in yourself and go for it. And sometimes you should do it even if you don’t feel you’re in dire straits. Why? Because it can often be win-win. If you succeed, you’ll have gained confidence and self-esteem (not to mention the actual success of what you’ve accomplished). If you fail, you learn! That’s no consolation prize either. The only way to grow is to learn from mistakes. If I thought my Broncos had learned from their mistakes yesterday, I might be ok with what I watched them do… but I’ll have to wait two weeks to find out.

See what I mean? I’m entirely sure that all sports probably have some juicy life lessons in them, but football’s the only one I’m even remotely qualified to talk about. Life isn’t a game, and I am in no way trivializing the journey; at the same time, it’s interesting to me to look at life in this way. To break it down into smaller components and compare it to something less “monumental” makes life seem simpler… less complicated.

*** Photo from Doug Pensinger/Getty Images (my own personal statement here: Al Wilson is the BEST middle linebacker ever and Denver misses him)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!