It’s easy to get discouraged when you put a lot of effort into something but still haven’t achieved your goals. If you measure your success by the attainment of the final result then you will face many disappointments. But Life is a Game of Inches, not of miles.
I remember watching Football for the first time when I was a teenager. When the game was explained to me, I couldn’t understand why they would need four downs to advance 10 yards. After all, from the TV screen, it didn’t seem like a huge distance.
I became impressed at how hard the Defensive players tried with all their might to prevent the Offensive players from advancing. It wasn’t as easy as it first looked.
Just like in Football, life puts obstacles in front of you daily. You want that touchdown. You can taste it. But you have a whole Football field to cross and many challenges to face. How will you measure your success? Will you measure it only when you score that touchdown, or every yard you manage to advance?
There is a famous speech from the 1999 film “Any Given Sunday”. Al Pacino’s character is a football coach giving his team a pre-game speech. He tells them that the only way to move forward is to fight, tooth and nail for every inch of ground. At the end of the day, it’s the total of those inches that separates the winners from the losers.
Life is no different.
Your success in life is not defined by your grand strategic moves. Your biggest success is defined by the sum of all the small decisions you make every day. It is a result of all the interactions accumulated throughout your life. It is the defining decision to make every day count.
Life is won, one inch at a time.
Any Given Sunday Al Pacino Pre-Game Speech
So many of us have huge plans for our future. Not many of us are really focused on what’s right in front of us, right now.
Focus on the Inches. Focus on the now. Win today.
Our lives can get pretty hectic and it can be easy to get lost in our actions. When we are so focused on what is ahead, we forget to pause, reflect and find ways to energize our minds. These 5-minute motivation posts are meant to give you that recharge. The goal is to give you a 5-minute Vitamin for your mind through quotes, posts and videos. It is also meant to challenge your thinking and inspire you to take action.