I call TIMEOUT

So you've gone and done a wonderful job throughout the season, and it's time for playoffs. You've entered into your third game against one of the toughest teams in the league, and though you've kept up with the opponent, you start to realize that your strategy is not working. Not only that, you've fallen a bit behind, and time is slowly ticking away. What do you do? You don't want to lose. In fact, it's not that you want to lose, but you want to win. However, with each minute, that win goes farther and farther out of reach. As coach, you watch all your players running around, and you watch the other team gaining momentum. Before things go too much out of hand, you call it.

TIMEOUT

A time to gather everything and everyone, and step through what just happened as well as what needs to happen. Have we stuck to the game plan? Have they figured us out? Do we stay on course? Do we switch things up? A time to reprioritize, a time to reflect, a time to make a decision, an important one that determines how the game will turn out.

However, one thing that a timeout is not. It is not a time to call it quits. Quitters simply leave the field. Such quitters don't regroup to tell each other they're going to lose. A person who can do such a thing is a person whom we call, a LOSER, and there's a difference between the two.

A quitter will always lose, but only in that moment. Furthermore, a smart quitter will know when to cut their losses. But a loser, a loser will simply lose it all because the loser's mentality is that one can never win the race. If you can't believe in your own personal success, you might as well just quit, and stay a quitter. The world has no love for you, and for you, the game's over. As my gaming friends would often say, that's "NT NOOB!" But I digress...

In this sport we call life, the momentum shifts often, and the pace picks up faster and faster. Graduate from kindergarten? Hey there hot stuff! Life is good. Graduate from jr high? Yea, you're 'cool' but now you have to figure out how to ensure that you have a chance at success (a la college education). Graduate high school? Yea, you're free, but now you're on your own and you have to this time REALLY ensure your personal success by soaking up the knowledge of the world. Graduate college? Yea, you're done! JUST KIDDING! Done? You've only just begun. Welcome to the ocean my little guppy ^_^.v

And let me tell you now, as I approach the ripe age of 27, it only gets faster. If it doesn't, and your life is slow like pondwater, let me tell you now that life hasn't stopped flowing. It's just that you're behind, WAY BEHIND, and YOU, my friend, need a TIMEOUT. Get yourself back to the bench and think about it. Reprioritize, remodel, reshuffle and return.

Because I can tell you right now, even in my fast paced life, I can't move forward without my own timeouts. Not only that, but there are also times when you just have to call a timeout because no matter what you do, it's simply not going to work out. When that happens, you simply call the timeout, and let the moment roll by. You rest up, you set up a game plan, and you get right back in it.

However, unlike sports and fortunately for us, life's timeouts can last longer than 20 seconds, or a minute. They can last a day, or a week, or a few months. For some, we can sustain a timeout for over a year. For each situation is a timeout that is viable for a certain amount of time. However, don't sit on the bench too long. Timeouts are made to help you, not hold you back. No one plays to lose (unless you like gambling). We play to win.

Let's win it, for us, for the team, for the ones we love and the ones we will love.