The Game of Life; Are You Playing Offense or Defense? Do you live your life on offense or defense? Usually when we hear these two words we think of sports. You play offense when you have the ball, and you play defense when your opponent has the ball. In this post, these two words will refer to your style of living. How you operate in your daily lives.
Living Offensively
Living life on offense is when you are always preparing for what is to come. Essentially, you stay ready. You try to anticipate what might happen in the future and get things in order. As we all know, we cannot see what the future holds. We can only try to navigate and guess what things might come up. Living offensively helps to keep the stress down.
Examples
- Establish an emergency fund by saving. This enables you to have a safety net for those unexpected occurrences.
- Keeping car maintenance up to date.
- Servicing the HVAC unit before it breaks down.
- Change your passwords often and create strong ones in an attempt to keep accounts safe.
Defensive Living
Alternatively, defensive living is when you react to things that come your way. You are good at rolling with the punches. Handling things on the fly comes easily. Becoming frazzled by the least little thing that happens, is not a concern for those who live this way.
Examples
- You have engine trouble due to not performing regular oil changes. Now, you have to take the car in for repair to fix the problem. This causes a small disruption and inconvenience in your travel.
- You have to go to the ER. The bill comes in the mail. You have to wait until next paycheck to cover the expense due to not saving. Or you are stressed trying to figure out how to take care of the bill.
- The passwords you use are generic and can be easily guessed. Your privacy is violated by an unauthorized third party. Now, you have to scramble to protect your private information.
The Game of Life
The one thing we know about life is that it is uncertain. We can control some things but then there are others that are not within our control. At the moment of truth, when it all goes down is when we tap into our inner self. The choice to take a defensive stance or an offensive one, I think, depends on our personality. Who we are at the core.
There is no right or wrong way to handle these situations that arise. We just have to do it in the way we know best. So, how you livin’ the game of life; are you playing offense or defense?
