Game Seven Intensity
If you’re a sports fan – particularly a basketball, baseball or hockey fan – then you probably love “game sevens” in the playoffs.
There’s just something about watching two teams – who have invested so much effort and yet have not separated themselves from one another after six games – lay it all on the line in that seventh, final and deciding game to see who wins this series and who goes home with nothing.
REAL Drama
Truly, it is human drama at its finest.
And one of the reasons I think we enjoy game sevens so much is because we see athletes REALLY giving 100%.
If you’ve ever watched a game seven of a Stanley Cup playoff finals – and, being a Detroit Red Wings fan, I’ve watched a few – it almost looks like a different sport from “regular hockey.” The players skate faster, hit harder and battle like gladiators.
I just watched a game seven in which my Red Wings came back from a three-to-zero playoff series deficit against the San Jose Sharks to not only tie the series at three-to-three, but to actually be in that seventh game until the final horn, with a few legitimate last-second chances to score. It was positively ELECTRIC to observe.
When you see participants giving THAT MUCH effort, it actually transcends the context. I’ve watched non-sports fans get totally into a game seven because you can FEEL how much the players want it, and that collective effort reaches out and grabs you.
How About You?
To my point: What do you do with “game seven” intensity?
Particularly as it relates to career, I think it’s very easy to fall into a routine in which we lope along at a certain pace and never get too much above or below that pace.
And, it is clearly not reasonable or even possible to work with “game seven” intensity every day.
But stop and ask yourself:
- When was the last time you did ANYTHING with game seven intensity?
- What is on your future project/task/to-do list in which you plan to expend game seven intensity?
- What are you going to do TODAY with game seven intensity?
Just because we can’t do EVERYTHING with game seven intensity doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be doing SOME THINGS with game seven intensity.
Market Rewards
I’ve watched a few people I know work with game seven intensity over relatively long periods of time, and they were able to separate themselves from their competition and gain some payoff or reward that was clearly “above market.”
Yes, working “smarter not harder” is a perfectly valid adage that gets used a lot these days (and it is a given that we all have to be constantly re-evaluating our game plans, our strategies and our objectives just to remain “in the game” in today’s hyper-competitive world), but I don’t believe that these things are necessarily mutually exclusive.
So, why not work smarter AND harder?
At least SOME of the time…
So, when’s YOUR next game seven?
Image courtesy of HouseofCassette.com
Comments feed
