“This was a very exciting and close game,
4-3!”
These were the words my wife said as she
watched highlights of the Champions League 1st leg encounter between Real
Madrid and Manchester City.
Having watched the full game a night
before, I remember thinking to myself, exciting game yes, close game-No! City should
have buried this game in the 1st 30 minutes but for missed chances.
For my wife though, the 5 minutes highlights was enough to base her overall assessment
of the entire game (90 minutes).
And to a large degree that is how we base our
assessment of the game of life. On the final or outward appearance of things. This
can be through pictures or videos presented to us on social media.
The following are the four lessons
learned through this interaction:
A.
Don’t compare
your life based on a small fraction of someone’s else’s life
There is a common tendency to evaluate
our lives based on the highlights of another person’s life. We compare our full
lives (100%) to 5% representation of another person’s life which is mostly
their best parts. When this happens, the mental evaluation scales are distorted and will not be in
your favor. You end up believing you are a loser.
B.
Those who don’t win
were not good enough
Sometimes even the best team loses. City
were the better team in terms of possession, chances created, etc. over the two
legs but they ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard. Ecclesiastes 9:11 sums it up well. To a certain extent, luck has a role to play on the outcome. You may do your best and even perform better than others but still not make it. Time and chance.
C.
Don’t show obstacles
overcome to succeed
Looking at the final scoreboard doesn’t tell
us how much effort went into achieving success. Watching the first half of the
game felt like Madrid would be run over by their opponents. But they were resilient despite the unsurmountable
pressure from City.
Most of the highlights we see may seem like overnight success, but it
takes a lot of sacrifice, setbacks, and even years to begin to see the fruits. Highlights
don’t show you the sweat.
D.
1-Dimensional
view of life
Highlights give us a limited view of the
match e.g., goals scored and assists. It may not show the other aspects of the game
such as the critical saves by the goalkeeper or tackles by defender, the work
rate of a midfielder to intercepts passes, etc.
In life, the scoreboard
maybe based on money, power, fame, work, etc. but overlook other faucets
which may not be easier to measure such as happiness, inner peace,
relationships, etc.
We judge so much of our game (life) based on a tiny and
visible aspects of someone’s else’s match. But highlight’s don’t tell the whole story and if not careful may lead us into an illusion of perfection which may not attainable.
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