Keep Your Eyes On Your Field, Not Theirs

If I had been born in the Boston, Massachusetts region, then in my lifetime, I could say that my professional sports teams had combined for 14 championships. The Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins, Boston Celtics, and the New England Patriots have combined to win these championships since 1982.

Now, I wasn't born in the Boston region; instead, I was born in the state of Washington, just three hours from Seattle, so naturally, I adopted the Seattle Seahawks, the Seattle Mariners, and the Seattle Supersonics. We didn't have a National Hockey League team until a few years ago. Since my birth year, my teams have combined to win one Super Bowl, thanks to the Seahawks, and that's it.

This isn't really about sports. It's about how easy it is to daydream our way out of the life we're actually living.

It's painful being a sports fan in the Pacific Northwest. We had a good run for a few years with the Seahawks, where over a ten-year span, they went to three Super Bowls and won one. But baseball has generally been shit since the franchise was started, and we then lost the Seattle Supersonics in the NBA to Oklahoma City back in 2008. So not only are my teams without world championships compared to other regions, but I've also lost a franchise as a fan.

I often wonder in these moments of painful sports experiences what it would have been like if my parents had relocated to New England around 1981, and then ultimately produced me in November 1982 like they did. Sure, a lot of things probably would be different today, including I wouldn't have met my wife, I wouldn't have attended the same schools, and maybe even my career path would have been different, but damn, I would be celebrating championships and wins like no other as a New Englander.

Instead, I'm left to wonder what that feeling of winning is like as a professional sports fan.

But then again, wasting time daydreaming about what could have been is a waste of time.

I find that we spend so much of our lives dreaming about what we are missing out on that we forget to enjoy what we have. Sure, my Seattle Mariners as a franchise have sucked as a whole, but those magical seasons we have had are incredibly magical and can still bring tears to my eyes when I think about them.

Where this shows up in our personal and professional lives is such a waste of time. We daydream about different lives like they are an answer key, but most of the time there is no purpose behind it and no merit to the exercise. It tricks us into thinking we should already be somewhere else, doing something else, holding a version of success that belongs to someone who took a different road. That kind of thinking leaves you empty because there is no finish line you can cross from inside your head.

The better play is to look at what you have. Your skills, your talents, your path, your life and where your feet are is the play. Winning in your own life is based on progress you own and touch rather than fantasies that you'll never own.

So instead of drifting into could-have-been, I come back to what is right in front of me and ask simple questions. What is my situation today? Where can I add value, and what inspiration can I lead with? Where can I find joy in where I am, as opposed to dreaming about where I may want to be or where I think I should be?

There's always a window in your own world that is open to viewing another story. Maybe the trophies never stack as high as they do in another situation. Maybe they do. But if you spend all of your time dreaming about what else is out there, or what else could be, you'll miss out on the life you have today.