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Playing to Win



In February of 2017, the Atlanta Falcons battled the team who shall remain nameless for the NFL Championship in Super Bowl LI. The Falcons were nearly unstoppable in the first half, rattling off 21 un-answered points before the other team, whose name escapes me at the moment, finally scored with a field goal in the closing seconds of the half. The second half started much like the first, with Atlanta quickly adding to their lead by capping off their first drive of the third quarter with another touchdown. The score was now 28-3 Atlanta and they looked to be in complete control. They were totally dominating their opponents and were no doubt aware of the fact no team in Super Bowl history had ever come back from more than a ten point deficit.

At a twenty-five point lead, the Falcons were comfortable. And that was the problem: they were comfortable and got complacent. Instead of trying to win, it seemed they were more focused on not losing. “Winning” and “not losing” may seem the same, but from a mindset standpoint, they are night and day different.

Playing to win is staying aggressive and leveraging strengths. It’s being proactive and intentional. It’s bringing the fight out to your opponent or objective rather than waiting for them to come to you. It is continuing to do and even improving on what got you there to begin with.

Playing to not lose is reactive rather than proactive. It’s a defensive stance that puts more attention on sheltering weaknesses than deploying strengths. It’s a conservative mentality that poisons mindset. It causes you to lean back on your heels instead of being up on your toes.

As you probably know (unless you’ve tried to block it out like I have), the Falcons slowly gave up their lead. They would never score again after that initial second half drive. Even though they were still up by a commanding margin until mid-way through the fourth quarter, the feel of game had changed entirely. The Falcons were back on their heels and had lost the fire and intensity they displayed early in the game. Although they were still leading until the nearly the end of regulation, whatever the Falcons were trying in the fourth quarter was starting to look a lot like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The Falcons had played to not lose and would thus forfeit the biggest game on the biggest stage. The team we shall not mention would end up winning in overtime but it seemed the game was over much sooner.

Playing to not lose is all too common. It happens in sports, business, relationships, personal development and in life all-together. We accomplish a few things but get comfortable and coast, no longer willing to rock the boat or do the difficult things that got us to that point initially.

Imagine a car with no brakes on a hill: it’s either climbing or falling backwards, there is no coasting. Keep your foot on the accelerator and play to win.

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