This last weekend my wife and I watched the Super Bowl. Now, I’m not a sports fan by any stretch of the imagination. I’m even a little fuzzy on some of the rules of football.
But given that the Packers were playing (our state’s team), and knowing that it may well be all people will talk about for weeks afterward, I decided to watch it.
It turns out that football beautifully illustrates the control principle that I had scheduled for this week – limiting of options.
Defense in football is all about limiting options. For any given play in football, the offense really only has a handful of options:
Run the ball. The quarterback can hand the ball to somebody who can try to run it down the field, or run it himself. Throw the ball. Same as running, although they throw it instead of handing it off. Kick the ball. If they’re close enough, and the top two options are too risky, they can try to kick the ball for a field goal.
In response to the above, the defense can do several things:
Block the runners. There’s a reason that the guys on the line weigh a few hundred pounds each – they’re there to stop the guys that try to run from moving forward. Block the receivers. If the offense decides to throw the ball, the defense has some super-fast guys that chase after the receivers. Their job is (in order of preference) to catch the pass themselves, to block the receiver from catching it, or to tackle him if he manages to catch it. Sack the quarterback. If the defense can get to the quarterback before he hands off or throws the ball, they can tackle him right there.
This is all about limiting options. The whole point of the defense is to prevent the offense from being able to move the ball forward.
This applies to regular life just as much as it applies to football. Take the example where you’re the parent of a small child.
If you’re a parent you can prevent your small child from dumping all five of their huge toy bins on the floor by not having five large toy bins to begin with. Making some reasonable choices regarding the quantity of incoming toys will pay dividends in mess avoidance later!
If you have adult siblings and you don’t get along so well, you can reduce your stress by limiting the amount of time you spend interacting with them to a reasonable amount.
If you have a coworker that likes to suck you into an unpleasant conversation every time you walk by his/her cubicle, you can avoid the problem entirely if you can take a different route.
If you’re on a diet and you like to eat donuts, you can reduce your donut consumption by not having them in the house. If your spouse and/or kids really want donuts, have them pick up just what they’ll eat at the store, and not have leftovers.
These are just examples, but you get the point – sometimes there are relatively painless choices we can make in the short term that will limit our long-term grief.
This isn’t a foolproof strategy by any means. This strategy doesn’t give you absolute control over anything – as we’ve discussed previously, absolute control is an illusion.
The child in the first example can still dump their toys on the floor. The sibling can still make your life difficult at family gatherings. The coworker can still come to your cubicle to harass you. You can still drive to the store and buy a donut.
The power of this strategy is that it allows you to frame many interactions in such a way that you have more control than before.
And that’s progress, any way you slice it.
What about you? Have you ever used this strategy? If so, how did it work? Let me know in the comments!