The Red Zone

The Red Zone dan skognes motivation blogger speaker teacher trainer coach educatorIn football, there is a thing called the red zone. It is the last twenty yards you have to cross in order to score your touchdown. It is by far the hardest part of the field to cross. In a way, it is a paradox. You are so close to your goal you can almost touch it, yet the opposition is so fierce within the red zone that many people are unable to score.

In life, the red zone is our comfort zone. At first glance, you may think, “That can’t be true.” Yet, I believe the comfort zone is the hardest zone of our life to break through. The reason is: fear is the imaginary barbed wire that surrounds the comfort zone. Everything we really want is on the other side: peace, joy, fulfillment, and reaching our goals.

If you are stuck in the red zone of life, how can you reach your goal?

  • If what you have been doing is not working, try a different strategy. Think about it this way. You are on the opponent’s twenty-yard line and you keep giving the ball to your star running back every play, and every time you do he gets crunched in the backfield. Does it make any sense to keep running that play and expecting a different outcome? You might get lucky and score, but the odds are not with you, particularly if the opposition knows your game plan. Have a plan b, c, and d if necessary.
  • You have to believe you can reach your goal if you ever expect to do it. Don’t allow negative people to keep you in the red zone. There are many people who don’t want you to succeed for a variety of reasons. Don’t listen to them. Have enough confidence in yourself and your team (if you have one) that you KNOW you are going to score. You just have to figure out the right strategy and do it.
  • Have a well thought out game plan BEFORE you start the game. Can you imagine going into a game without a playbook? Of course not. And yet…that is what people do day in and day out when it comes to playing the game of life. They just wing it, and that is usually a recipe for disaster. You have to think through what will and won’t work. You have to figure out what the cost is to reach your goal and anticipate opposition. You will get opposition from many sources, but the greatest opposition may very well be the voice in your head telling you, “This is never going to happen.” Take those thoughts captive and don’t let them take root in what you believe. Have a playbook and know it by heart, then implement.
  • Improvise when you have to. Just because you are stuck and the odds seem overwhelming at the moment does not mean you are going to get sacked again. Pivot and play. Watch the great quarterbacks and how they respond to pressure. When the pocket begins to collapse, they pivot and play. They either look for an alternate receiver or they find a hole in the line and run through it themselves. They keep their mind on the goal and their eye on the ball.

I pray that you find a way to reach the end zone and not let anything deter you from fulfilling your dreams.

Shalom!

Dan Skognes

2 Responses to “The Red Zone”

  1. Yea, but sometimes you’ve messed up so badly you have no option except to let the game go. Maybe you’ll get another chance so you can play a better game or maybe not, you’ll just have to wait and see 🙁