I recently saw a post on IG that broke down the core principles of the NFL gameplan into pretty simple terms. @travisgreenetv talked about how he had always misunderstood the true concept of football. He had always believed the goal of football to be the touchdown, until he realized that the goal is actually the first down. Essentially, if he lives his life trying to acquire as many first downs as possible, he will eventually score a touchdown. To view the reel, just click here. It was very wholesome.
I have—at many points during my existence—swung for the fence. I am guilty of having lost sight of the important things and become hyper-fixated on the future and my ultimate goals. “Shoot for the stars, and aim for the moon.” We’ve been taught to dream big, and we’ve been admonished to be realistic. This entry is neither this, nor is it that. I want to talk briefly about how small victories—no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential—are paramount to nurturing one’s confidence and nourishing one’s mental health. To help simplify and clarify what I’m trying to say, I’ll use the age-old adage of a shooter in basketball. When your jump-shot isn’t falling, it takes only a few layups or visualizations to restore one’s confidence. Once you get used to seeing the ball go in the hoop, it’s almost mystical how it impacts your future shot attempts. From personal experience, the mere act of crossing off a task impacts me in such a major way. The hackneyed expression, “Rome wasn’t built in a day” is illustrative of the power of small victories. I wouldn’t ever advise you to lower your expectations or to “aim lower.” Instead, I implore you to measure your success in the process and in the grind. It’s in the small victories that we learn who we are and what we’re made of.
