The Sidelines

In the several months that I haven’t written in this blog, I’ve learned a few things. My favorite I’ve decided to openly share here. Maybe this insight will apply to you. With that, I commence.

Everyone talks about living for today and being actively part of life. I’ve heard it said that we should not stand on the sidelines; we should always be in the game. However, I’ve discovered that standing on the sidelines is not always a bad thing. In fact, it is sometimes necessary. As passive as that sounds, think of it this way.

In football, everyone commends and cheers for the players who are always in the action on the field handling the ball or defending the team. As I mentioned before, many tend to view life in the same way. They must be in the game to have fun. But what about the coach? You never see him on the field with the ball. No. The coach is watching, learning the mistakes and weaknesses of his team in order to help keep them from doing it again. He provides direction and spirit for the team. He keeps them disciplined, in line with his vision of one day winning.

In the same way, sometimes we need to take off our helmets, step back and just observe. Watch people make mistakes and learn from them. In that way, we can prevent some poor soul from making the same mistake that we or someone else has made. Being on the sidelines does not equate to being passive. On the contrary, it is actively observing and storing information, learning lessons and processing the consequences in order to then actively prevent and correct the same ones later.

~ by aimeeacoustic3 on October 16, 2008.