The Best Defense is a Good Offense! —Vince Lombardi

The above quote is often referenced in the world of sports or the theatre of war. What does it mean? Essentially, if you want to gain an advantage over your opponent, a passive, defensive mode will not get the job done. You can’t let someone bring the fight to you. You need to go on offense. You need to go on the attack. You need to dictate the action!

This is certainly true in athletic competition and on the battlefield. And it is absolutely necessary if you want to lead a resilient life!

In order to bolster your career, you must take control of your work life. It’s all about hustle.

Make more calls than anyone else. Follow up with passion. Break down the film until you find a breakthrough. Study new methodologies for impacting your students. Embolden your case with dogged research. Aggressively pursue your new business plan.

You must go beyond the bare minimum!

Of course, you must plan. You must be strategic. But spending all your time planning will not move the ball forward. Analysis paralysis is not playing offense. Action is the key to success!

The same is true in our personal lives. If we want to experience a social and successful life, we must play offense.  We can’t hunker down and wait for happiness to come our way.

Pursue actions that will deliver the outcomes you desire.

Proactively reign in your spending. Invest your money. Provide a solid moral compass for your children. Rigorously participate in exercise. Step up and ask that special someone out on a date.

We must be intentional about the direction of our lives. We must take risks in the pursuit of excellence. There is never any guarantee of success. But if we stay active and play offense, we give ourselves the best chance possible!

But what happens when we aggressively pursue success and fall on our face? What happens when we can’t defend someone else’s offense? There are many times when it seems success is beyond our control.

Our compensation plan shrinks. Our role is marginalized. Our sales dry up. Our students and players tune us out. Our clients no longer value our service. Our investments tank. Our children make a poor decision. We sustain a major injury. We get rejected in our pursuit of a relationship.

How do we play offense when we are constantly on our heels?

If you want to live a resilient life, you cannot let someone else define your self-worth and happiness.  You cannot let your failures define you. You must respond with action! You must play offense!

Pursue a role that values your contributions. Double down on your efforts to find new clients. Never give up on your students or players even if they give up on you.  Actively communicate your love and support for your children even in dark times. Pursue another investment vehicle. Manically push yourself to recover from injury. Get back on that horse and keep forging new relationships.

Never get intimidated by rejection.

We can’t stay in the fetal position and allow the punches to reign down on us. We must stay on the attack! We must dictate the next step. We have far more control than we think. We just need to keep playing offense!

Life is not something that happens to us. There are no victims.  If we stay confident and stay active, there is nothing that can penetrate our soul. There is nothing that can keep us down.

The next step is up to you. No one can take it for you. You must resolve to pursue a life of action. And you must always remember the best defense is a good offense!

Until next week, keep smiling!