A Quarterback Needs a Short Memory

What I’m Learning by Watching Football

While watching a recent Pittsburgh Steelers game on TV, the commentator said that a quarterback has to have a short memory. I asked my husband what that meant because I’d never heard this concept before. I don’t watch much football, but he’s a big Steelers fan so when you marry the man, you inherit the team.

He and the commentators talked about this concept saying that no matter what happened the play before, whether it was a touchdown or an interception, the quarterback had to forget it and focus on the play he was making now.

I thought about how I might apply this to my own life.

Can I use this to cope with the horrible traffic jams that plague almost every commute I make? The traffic is so bad on the drive, that I would find myself so drained of energy by it. I usually didn’t angry because that took too much energy. This was just the slow leaching of your life force, as slow as the inching progress you make foot by foot on a highway that was built for 65 mph plus.

After a bad stretch of traffic, the pace picked up and we were all moving along fine. I found myself still thinking about the traffic jam and how awful it was and why does it have to be like this, worrying if there was another slowdown just ahead. I sat perched in my car seat, peering anxiously over the steering wheel and craning my neck to see up the road ahead. I was thinking of how aggravating it is when there is no reason for the slowdown. When you get to the spot, you see a car on the side of the road, not even blocking a lane and you realize it was all for nothing, then I get mad. But if I see an accident, especially one with EMTs on the scene, my anger deflates. I’m grateful I’m not in the accident; I’m just inconvenienced. I’m going home; they are going to the hospital, or worse.

Then I thought of Ben Roethlisberger. I thought, Right now, I am not in a traffic jam. Right now, I am driving along. So right now, I am going to change my mood and my energy.

And it worked. I felt better. The rest of the drive went normally, with a few slowdowns but nothing major.

Will thinking like a quarterback work in other areas of my life? I plan to try it.

After all, I am the quarterback of my own life, and it’s up to me to forget the last play and focus on here now.