Siddeeq Shabazz
CFL.ca
Last week I said that exploring what it meant to be afraid of my greatness started my journey. It definitely started my journey from fear and scarcity toward love and abundance, but in all reality life is the journey, so it’s the sum total that makes us who we are.
In football we always talk about how critical it is to move on to the next play, you hear coaches say “you have to have a short term memory,” and this proves especially true for a defensive back. The greatest DB’s I’ve had the opportunity to witness in action didn’t get it right all the time, and got beat on silly things at times, but it never shook their confidence, and on numerous occasions they would come back the very next play to make a big play.
So in the game of life why don’t we apply that same old football adage and stop being defined by our past, and rather learn from it and define ourselves anew in the most important time of our lives, the only one that really matters – the present. That was one of the first and most difficult lessons for me to learn, and I am actually still working on getting it down to a science. All the lessons that I have learned have carry-over and implications for the other so it’s really hard to separate and list them, but if I were to try arranging them in a list it would look something like this:
- Lesson 1 – You are not your past, you get to define yourself in every present moment.
- Lesson 2 – You are only as healthy as you understand yourself to be.
- Lesson 3 – Ego identification is a tough cycle to break, but on the other side of it is true joy and happiness.
- Lesson 4 – Attachment isn’t a necessary ingredient for true love.
- Lesson 5 – Right and wrong, and good and bad are just judgments, and when you judge others you’re really just judging yourself.
- Lesson 6 – We’re responsible for creating our own reality, so be mindful of who and what you let influence it.
- Lesson 7 – Who you are being has a lot more impact than what you are doing.
- Lesson 8 – If you don’t plant seeds you will continually reap weeds.
Each of these lessons had a profound impact on both my life and my football career. In all honesty I had a tough time leaving my work in Atlanta that inspired this newfound sense of self to come back to this hostile, and at times very fear oriented, establishment of professional football. It was those same lessons that had me feeling like I shouldn’t come back that eventually led to my decision to return to the game. Lesson 4 helps explain part of that. I had to figure out if I was still attached to all the things that came with the game that fed my ego, or was I going to be able to fulfill my mission of being a positive impact on others and thus continue adding to the joy and love in my life.
In addition, I couldn’t leave with so many goals unaccomplished – especially when I felt that I had finally obtained all the tools that would propel my game to that next level.
Now looking at this season three quarters of the way done it’s another humbling experience to see how far I still have to go, not just in my mental approach to the game and the myriad of obstacles that come with it, but also in my leadership skills, my ability to stay focused and goal oriented, etc.
It’s times like this when Lesson 1 has the most dramatic impact on how I approach my life, and approaching life as a game also comes in handy. If I wasn’t viewing it as a game, and enjoying the journey of it, it could be easy to pack it in at any time and chalk it up as a lost cause, or I could take the same approach the best coaches take as they draw as many positives from a win or a loss and find out what improvements can be made for the next big contest. The more you are able to win no matter the outcome, that’s when I believe you start finding success in all that you do and get closer to experiencing joy in every day of your life.
Siddeeq Shabazz is a second-year linebacker with the Edmonton Eskimos. He led the team in defensive tackles as a rookie in 2007. He is also a lifestyle coach for www.yourdayetc.com.
