Defining Moments Define You

Now that football season is over and the Super Bowl has been decided, here is one of my biggest takeaways: Defining moments define you.

Let dig back into the archives. Way back.  I still remember watching the NFC Championship Game in 1967 (at the time it was the National Football League) with my dad. Ray Scott and Jack Buck, two of my all time favorite sportscasters, called the game.

I will spare you the details, but the game came to be known as the Ice Bowl. Look it up. The weather conditions were beyond brutal.

However, the Green Bay Packers were coached by the legendary Vince Lombardi, and the Dallas Cowboys by the legendary Tom Landry. It was a tight game. The score was Dallas 17 – Green Bay 14 with just seconds remaining. However, Green Bay had the ball at the one-yard line (sound familiar?). Actually it was a little less than a yard to go for a touchdown.

It was third down and Bart Starr, the quarterback, was able to sneak it into the end zone for the game-winning touchdown. That play was played over and over. It became a defining moment. Now no one knew that at the time. But that’s the way defining moments are. You don’t realize them until later.

But that touchdown secured Vince Lombardi’s place in football history. In fact, I will go so far as to say that if Green Bay had not scored, today’s Super Bowl winner would not be receiving the Lombardi trophy, but the Landry trophy. That’s how big that play was.

You too will face defining moments. My dad faced one when he came home with an unusual job offer. He took it, and it continues to define his life.  It was a wise decision.

In my own life I made a decision to buy a piece of land in a split second. That quick decision became a very positive defining moment in my family’s life.

In the business world, Stephen Covey wrote a book in his fifties entitled “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.”  That book became a defining moment in his own life.

But let’s go back to football and the recent Super Bowl. Seattle had the ball at the one yard line; however, unlike Green Bay, they did not score. As a result New England won the game and Tom Brady became a four-time Super Bowl winner. Even though he was not on the field for the crucial play, that win has forever put him in the conversation of “Best Quarterbacks of All Time.” The play at the end of the game and the win became defining moments in his life. It didn’t hurt that he had an incredible fourth quarter while on the field.

A defining moment may be on its way into your own life. You may not recognize when it comes, but there will be one. The best way to prepare is to start making wise decisions today so when the defining moment comes, you’ll be ready to make the decision that defines you.

In the Old Testament a boy named David made a decision to take on the giant Goliath. That decision became the defining moment in his life. But his earlier decisions led to that decision.

Once again, a defining moment is on its way. I hope you’re ready. It may define you for years to come.

Are you ready?