Fourth Quarter

Yesterday I woke up to the beginning of the fourth quarter. I remember being a freshman at Boise State where I was introduced to a powerful concept about the fourth quarter. When we were conditioning at the end of practice, we were instructed to hold our hands up in the air with four fingers on each hand. This seemed simple enough when they explained it, but when I was gasping for air, it was extremely difficult to do. Try it sometime. Go find a football field in your area. Line up on the goal line and sprint as fast as you can for 110 yards (through the opposite end zone). After about 15 seconds, turn around, get on the goal line and sprint back 110 yards. Do this 10 times. During the 15 seconds in between, hold your hands straight up in the air with four fingers up. As your lungs are heaving for air, your torso will naturally fall forward. Your hands will want to go to your knees. It was all I could do to get my hands from my knees to my hips. It was really hard to hold my hands in the air when I was gasping. This was the point. It was not easy, therefore the common man or woman would not do it. It was uncommon.

After we ran our sprints, I remember the coach telling us that there would come a day when this exercise would make a difference in our season. He told us, “Being in shape is not a skill, it is a choice”. The choices we make leading up to the fourth quarter will define our season one way or another. Later in that year, I noticed how much easier it was for me to hold my hands in the air between sprints. We played a critical game that year where this all came full circle. We were the defending National Champions of I-AA and every team we played was trying to knock us off the hill. This game was a dog fight and close when the third quarter came to an end. As most of you know, in football,Fou you change ends after each quarter. I remember seeing our team captain sprint down the field holding his four fingers in the air screaming, “Fourth Quarter!” He even turned around and motioned to the opposing team to follow him in his sprint to the other end of the field. He could not wait to line up and play the fourth quarter because he knew that he had prepared. I still remember seeing the look on the opposing players faces as our whole team sprinted to the other end with fingers raised following the captain. Our opponents were already defeated!

As you roll into the fourth quarter, I wish you this spirit of knowing you have done what you needed to do to dominate in the fourth quarter and win the game. “Being in shape is not a skill, it is a choice”. Did you make the right choices this year? If you did, sprint into the fourth quarter with your fingers raised into the air for all of your teammates to see and your opponents to fear. If you did not, remember this day and tell yourself that you will never be in this position again. You can still finish the game strong. You can also begin making the right choices for the next game now! 

Either way, we all have a choice to make...

#BeUncommon #Whosdoingthis