Persistence – Knocked Off His Stride, But Not Off His Feet

Soccer Player Header Attacking Defender

In soccer (football) it is illegal to slide tackle a player from behind. This is a good rule – such a tackle could easily result in a serious injury for the player dribbling the ball.

Nonetheless, players do it – sometimes because there is no other way to stop an attacker from getting towards the goal. Sliding in from behind is a way defenders can trip the attacker and stop the flow of the game. When this happens and the offensive player somehow manages to keep dribbling despite the desperate (and illegal) attempt to tackle, Andy Gray yells one of my favorite phrases:

“He’s been knocked off his stride, but not off his feet!”

Just like one of Andy Gray’s other phrases (“Is This The Moment“), this really resonates with me. I’ll start off by telling a short story that illustrates this, and then discuss the implications in our lives.

“I Say No To Every Idea The First Time”

People Meeting Bored Pen Explain Coffee Cups When my dad worked in a large corporation, he observed a process he found inefficient – and that he could improve upon. He reviewed the problem, came up with a solution and went to present it to his director. He was was sure his proposal would be implemented, because it was an improvement over the old situation, and was better for all the stakeholders involved – including the company.

He explained his proposal and expected to get the “go ahead” to implement the solution – but his director waved him off, and said no.

Puzzled, he returned to his office to reconsider what was wrong with his proposal. After reviewing it, he was sure that his proposal was an improvement – and that his director had made a mistake turning him down.

So my dad went back to his director and explained that he couldn’t understand why his proposal had been rejected – it was a win-win for everyone involved, and would benefit the company immediately. He told him he was sure he was right, and wanted to know why it had been rejected.

“Well,” his director told him “every day I have dozens of people who come up to me and believe they have a great idea. Many of these ideas are good, but people simply do not follow through and we end up with a half finished solution. So my policy is simple – I say no to every idea the first time. This takes care of all the ideas that people were not especially excited about working on anyway. Even the bad ideas, only a handful of them will come back to me for reconsideration.”

Since it was clear my father was passionate about implementing his solution, his director now considered the proposal on it’s merits – and did finally give my father the “go ahead” to implement.

Sweat – And Celebrate – The Little Things

Beach Sunrish Wake Early Perfect Day So often we hear stories of famous people who have overcome failure on their way to their goals. I find such stories inspiring, but I think when we glorify only the large triumphs, we lose sight of what’s right in front of us – the small obstacles that stop us.

For every story about someone who had to overcome intense hardship and turmoil to achieve their dreams, I would argue there are hundreds and thousands of people who failed before they even got started – perhaps due to a minor setback, or just plain old fashioned procrastinating and watching too much tv.

So let’s not just celebrate those who have overcome large obstacles – let’s celebrate ourselves when we overcome a small obstacle that could have been a showstopper had we let it. Circumstances where, like in my father’s case, it would have been easy to give in to “the situation” and just walk away – but where we chose not to.

I am not proposing anyone continue down a path in spite of everything that happens: of course it’s important to know when to admit we’ve failed, let things go and to learn from our mistakes.

I would argue however, it’s even more important to recognize instance where we’ve encountered only temporary setbacks.

We need to recognize times where obstacles are surmountable.

We need to recognize when we’re just making excuses and pretending things are harder than they really are.

We need to recognize when it’s time to buckle down, get motivated and push back against forces that stand in our way.

We need to recognize, as Andy Gray says, those moments where we’ve been “knocked off our stride – but not off our feet.“

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