As an athlete at heart, I often look at business, life and success through the lens of sports.
You can either live your life on Offense or Defense. You can be moving forward, taking chances and seeking out positive results or you can find yourself perpetually on the defensive where you’re stuck in a mindset of always defending, guarding and hunkering down.
The dictionary defines “Defense” as “the action of defending from or resisting attack.”
If you want to make positive progress in life you need to think “Offense”.
The action of attacking life with passion. As in sports, you are attempting to advance the ball and put points on the scoreboard. In life it’s about gaining those little victories everyday that can add up and build confidence. These small wins keep you moving forward, learning, growing and succeeding.
Here’s four key areas that if you take on a mindset focused on “Offense”, you can make amazing progress.
Your health. We are all aging, but do you sit back and do nothing? No, you attack it by focusing on taking proactive action to do the things that better your health. Lower stress, workout, move, eat right and take care of yourself. You actually can defend against many ills by going on the offense. Much of your health is in your control. As the saying goes, the best defense is a great offense.
Wealth. Many people have money problems because they are on the defense. Sure they go out and spend, run up credit card debt and take “action” spending however in reality they are playing defense. Why? Because they often have a job with a defined salary so they are confined within boundaries. They are then defending as the bills pile up. To go on the offense you have to create wealth, build it, and grow it. That’s action. You aren’t stuck with limits. You are pushing to expand your wealth and increase your income.
Happiness. The surest way to tell if you are on offense or defense is the company you keep. If you are hanging around negative people then you’re certainly not moving forward. The only reason people maintain a toxic group of friends is they are “defending” their internal fear of feeling like an outcast. Toss the losers to wayside and go out on your own. Being alone is much better than wasting valuable time with negative people. Move forward and seek to only associate with positive people who inspire and lift you up.
Career. Not everyone is made to own a business or become an entrepreneur but in todays’ fast changing job market, you better learn how to become your own “brand”. You can’t sit back and hope there is a job for you. Automation is eliminating many careers so you need to go on offense and build new skills, work on self-improvement and think like an entrepreneur. Why? because the next job or career might not have even been created yet.
Get out, get active and take on life with passion!