I don't want to mislead readers by writing something about sports every day. My plan isn't to turn this blog into a sports column. Nonetheless, I think that, in their own way, sports are generally the purest form of competition and bring out the best and worst in man. In that way, they can be used as examples for just about every other aspect of life. And, that's why sports analogies so often focus on individual performance, and the manner in which a competitor steps up to challenge, faces adversaries and handles immense pressure.
Now, one might ask, what in the world does competition have to do with me? I'm an accountant or pharmacist or perhaps I stock shelves in a store. I'm not some kind of competitor. But, the fact is: yes you are. Everything in life is a competition, whether people realize it or not. Every person that one confronts measures them in one way or another; appearance, poise, articulation, vocabulary, skill, knowledge...the list goes on and on. Whether one measures others purposefully or subliminally, the process still goes on. And from the results, people formulate judgements.
That person's too smug, or to glib or too self-absorbed they might conclude. Or conversely perhaps ascertain -Gee I really like that person, he or she seems friendly and easy to talk to and seems to know his or her stuff. But, whatever these judgements about others are, or how they were reached doesn't really matter. What matters is: a judgement has been reached and in the eyes of the judge, that's you or me, the person in question has been sentenced. We either like them or we don't, we admire them or don't, we respect them or don't and on and on. And, its in that sense that I mean everyone competes every day, whether they realize it or not.
The bottom line of it all is, people generally appear to others as winners or losers. So, if that's really true, than everyone who wants to succeed needs to do what the best athletes do. Learn everything they can about their position, practice until every function is second nature, seek the best counseling for constant inprovement, use the best equipment available and put their heart into every attempt.
To come back to why I think sports achievements are analagous to success in most other endeavors in life, I recall something the great Joe DiMaggio said many years ago. He was asked near the end of a long season near the end of his career why he played so hard in a game that really didn't matter to the team at all. He replied that he did it because there might be some kid in the stands, or maybe some really old fan, watching him for perhaps the first or last time. And if that was the case; he owed them his best performance.
I think if everyone applied that same attitude to whatever it is we do, we'd all benefit from the wisdom and belief of the great DiMage.
Having said all the preceding, I hope to use sports analogies from time to time to illustrate other aspects of life. Thus, this column was meant to set that stage.
Adios
MB
Talk about going from the sublime to the ridiculous. One day its the Great DiMaggio the next its about the execrable Cosell.
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