Reset Your Perspective

If we’re truly honest, there are times we take the field or the court as a coach or athlete, and that ‘I’ tends to become very loud in our minds. We think, “I need to score the next goal,” “I need to be faster,” “I need to win us the game,” “I am the coach, so I have the best strategies,” and on and on. We think it’s all on us to come up with the answer or win. But we are to compete with others in mind and play for something greater than ourselves.

Deviating from God’s Word and purpose for our lives results in a distorted perspective on life, which can impact how we approach competition. A distorted view has an “I” mentality and says:

• I am only valuable as a teammate or coach if I perform well.
• My future is defined by my success right now.
• My identity is defined by my abilities and skills as a coach or athlete.

It’s no secret that in order to run a play as a team, you must know and study that play. The more time we spend learning and practicing the play, the greater the play will be executed. There are many accounts of Jesus spending time with His Father — who guided and directed His life on earth — Jesus was often found praying and recounting God’s Word.

If we want to change our view on how we approach competition and aim to execute the play for something greater than ourselves, we must spend time reading God’s Word and in prayer.

When we play for something greater, we have the ability to play beyond right now. What and how we play today can have a significant effect on our future, our teammates’ future and our communities.

Spending time on and off the field in God’s Word will give us the greatest opportunity to have a Christlike mentality and implementation of who we are as competitors. Our perspective and focus are no longer fixed on ourselves but on those around us and an eternal relationship with Christ in Heaven. It’s amazing what a little perspective reset will do.