Monday, January 15, 2007

Mental Toughness & Other Credit Scoring Lessons: NFL's New England Patriots

It's possible to recover from a series of mistakes and financial fumbles if we go back to the sidelines and constantly review our charts and errors. That's the wisdom I picked up from Sunday's NFL playoff game between the New England Patriots and the San Diego Chargers. Here's a link to the Washington Post story about the game.

Like many of us--the quarterback, Tom Brady, struggled with his game. He was hit with a long list of problems during the game. I've had some everything-seems-wrong moments in my life. Therefore, I admire Brady's focus:

All game long he had struggled. His range was off, he underthrew and overthrew, he was hurried and sacked. But after each failed drive or turnover, he would return to his sideline and study his charts, imperturbable.

"You know it's just not letting anything get to you," Brady said. "It's staying focused no matter what's swirling around you. Just continuing to mentally fight through whatever obstacles there might be." --Washington Post


New England won the game in the final minutes, defeating the San Diego Chargers by a score of 24 to 21.

They call it mental toughness and it pays dividends.
I think the most important thing is, we have a bunch of mentally tough guys in here who don't give up, regardless of the situation," New England defensive back Ray Mickens said. "I think that shows today, that we didn't get down on ourselves just because we were down by 11 points, but just kept hammering away and being mentally tough." Source: Washington Post


Financial Lessons I picked up from the sidelines:

1. Constantly study your charts, balance sheets and strategy.
2. Don't give up.
3. Stay focused.
4. Chip away at deficits
5. Constantly look for opportunities to score points.

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