The Last Five Minutes
I love to watch basketball on TV. I played it as a youngster, I play it as a 50-something. Fun sport; exciting, fast-paced, great exercise, team play and individual accomplishment. It’s all there.
A friend of mine likes to tell me (and has a number of times) that his wife will ask: “Why watch the whole game when the winner is decided in the last five minutes of the game?”
Hmmm…good point. Maybe. If you’re just a spectator and all you want is to see who wins the game in ‘real-time’ then, yeah, sure, tune in to the last five minutes and be entertained and get the score.
Years ago when Michael Jordan was winning his championships, I read a satire on how long the last minute of the game takes.
“The clock has 59.7 seconds on it; Michael Jordan takes the ball, jukes his opponent, shakes and bakes, takes a fifteen-foot jumper and HITS!
“Now there’s a time out. 54.9 seconds on the clock….”
The bit went on for awhile, with the writer tuning in and out of the game, going to mow his lawn, do the laundry and a few other chores and when he kept checking in on the game there was Michael Jordan – with about 24.5 seconds left now – putting on another move, stopping the clock to shoot free throws – another time out…just 20.9 seconds left… Meanwhile, the total elapsed time of the last 60 seconds of actual game time has taken about half an hour!
So maybe watching the last five minutes of a game is enough.
But not if you’re in the game.
I reflected on this while watching the Saints-Vikings game last Sunday. Halftime score was tied, 14-14. Hey, if you tuned in at halftime you didn’t miss much, right? The score is tied, eh? If they went into overtime all you’d need is to see the overtime to get the result – correct?
Naah, not if you’re a real fan. And particularly not if you’re in the game. Every minute counts. As it does in your business, your job. Your relationship with your spouse, kids, co-workers, friends, neighbors…
Do you just show up at the end to see how the score went? Or do you play from the beginning, giving your all; planning, strategies, trying and failing, getting up and trying again until you succeed?
Do you count the experience you get in improving your skills going up against the competition? Do you take heart in the joy and heartbreak that comes from actually putting it all out there to see how you do?
There is incredible value in having played, in having put your cards on the table. Your experience increases, as does your skill and savvy.
No matter what the game – a game of sports, a game of life – you can’t get the full experience without playing from start to finish.
Joining in for the last five minutes of today’s competition might let you see the final score. But the value is slight compared to having gotten in at the beginning and played to the end.
photo credit: ShashiBellamkonda
