Looking Upfield
First things first. I fucking HATE sports metaphors. They’re lazy and thin. The kind of thing a used salesman shills to sound clever.
“Make a game-time decision”
“Dropped the ball”
“We need a home run”
I suppose they can be insightful, but most have been overused and devalued. Occasionally, though, one hits the nail so squarely on the head, you just have to use it. So, for all you sports-haters out there, I apologize…but not really.
Now.
I have this really bad habit. This habit where I’ll have an idea, or take on a project, only to find myself entirely unable to follow through. For any given number of reasons I get distracted. We’re all guilty of it. We turn our heads and focus attention elsewhere before that thing, whatever it may be, has even had a chance to take root and find its legs. In other words, we “look upfield”. The ball is right there on our fingertips, but before it’s even in our grasp we’re already looking towards the goal line and checking our peripherals to see if anyone’s coming in for the tackle and then, before we know it, the ball’s lying there on the ground.
We, I, need to remind ourselves daily to focus on the task at hand—catch the ball, then secure our grip—before turning our heads and looking forward to what’s ahead.
Otherwise we’ll just be that shitty receiver that always drops the pass…and eventually the quarterback’s gonna stop throwing us the ball.
