Episode 27: Celebrate Like a Football Player (Bonus Episode)

It’s (American) football season so here’s a mini episode about why grown men slap each other’s asses, smack helmets, and act like fools in the end zone—and why you should definitely be doing the same thing.

In a word: confidence. You get it by celebrating every step in your progress towards a goal, no matter how tiny or incremental that progress might be. And football players know that. Even if they’re team isn’t looking like it’s going to win, the progress (aka stats) they make as individuals and as a team still matter.

Progress matters. Celebrate the hell out of it!

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In this episode

00:57 – Episode 4: 3 Epic Reasons to Celebrate Your Wins

Transcript

[00:00] Paulette: Buen día y welcome to the Maker Muse Podcast, the place where child free Spanglish speaking mujeres fuertes are inspired to find their confidence, su confianza, through creativity. I’m Paulette Erato, the Maker Muse.

[00:18] Hey, hola mi amigue. Yes the podcast is still on hiatus pero te prometí mini episodes during this downtime. So here’s one!

[00:26] It’s football season here in the US which means I’m spending my Thursday ,nights probably all day Sunday, and Monday nights on the couch, drinking a few beers, watching some games. Oh yeah. And Saturdays too when UCLA’s playing. And we’re doing really good this season. Go Bruins!

[00:41] So what do all of these games have in common? It’s the celebrations that the players have on the field after each and every play. Even if you have no idea what’s going on during the game, you’ll see these high fives and these helmet smacks happen at the end of every play.

[00:57] And that’s what I wanna talk to you about today: why that’s happening and why you should do it too. And yes, I did do a longer episode about this already. I feel so strongly about this topic that I’m covering it again. And then you can go back and listen to episode four after this if you want.

[01:15] Like a lot of these mini episodes, this was a live training done in my Facebook group, which is also on pause for the time being, so it might sound a little, hmm, rough . I hope you enjoy.

[01:26] Let’s talk about progress, celebrating wins. I talk about this a lot and I’ve done an episode on this. And the reason I wanna talk about this is because it’s football season again, and I was sitting there watching football as I do, because I love football.

[01:40] And just realize how funny this game is, and I’m gonna give you, if you don’t watch football or don’t care, that’s okay. I’m gonna explain the rules to you. I mean, I’m gonna explain the objective of the game to you very quickly, and then use that as an illustration of why this is important.

[01:57] We’re talking American football, so there’s two end zones. There’s a hundred yards in between them, and there are two teams. One team is trying to get in the end zone and the other team is trying to keep them from getting in the end zone. And the goal is to move the ball 10 yards. So one 10th of the field is the entire goal every time they have a ball. And the team with the ball is trying to get into the end zone by moving only 10 yards at a time, and they get four tries to do that.

[02:27] So the stretch goal is just get it all the way in the end zone the first time. But because you have 11 people trying to keep you from doing that, you’re only trying to get at least 10 yards. And because we’re talking about very large people and very, you know, at the top of their game players, that is very hard to do.

[02:51] It is very hard to do. So the moment they move those 10 yards, and if they do it in less than four tries, they are so excited. Even if they only move a couple of inches forward, they’re so excited. The person who was able to move the ball, any increment, is patted on the ass, they’re like hitting each other’s helmets and they’re like, Yeah, let’s do it again.

[03:18] If you watch any game on Sunday, you will see this kind of behavior. The other team, anytime they stop the ball before it reaches that 10 yard line, the mark, you know, (that would be a first down) before they, if they can keep that from happening, if they can keep the team from moving 10 yards, they’ve done their job, they’ve done their job.

[03:42] If they can manage to push the team backwards so that now they have to go further than 10 yards, that’s a motherfucking win for them. And when they are able to do that, when they are able to stop the ball from advancing any amount, any amount, I’m talking 10 yards, three yards, a few inches, they themselves will then smack helmets and hit asses and you know, do the thing.

[04:08] And these are all little celebrations happening on the field, for the smallest amount of progress. Or if you’re the defense, keeping them from making any progress. So if you’re the team with the ball, you’re trying to just go 10 yards. It doesn’t sound like a lot. If you’re in the gym and you lift 10 pounds, then you’re like, maybe I can lift 20.

[04:33] 10 doesn’t sound like that big of a deal. But the truth of the matter is that it is. 10 pounds is half of 20 pounds. So if you’re gonna double the amount of weight you’re gonna lift from one day to the next, that’s a big deal. When you take your first steps in life, that is such a tremendous deal for the people who are trying to teach you how to walk, that they clap, they cheer, they do the same thing that football players on the field when they manage to advance just 10 yards, do: they celebrate.

[05:08] Why is that? Why do we celebrate our wins? You know why! You know why it’s important to celebrate your wins! Because every time you see an advancement in progress, no matter how small it is, one yard, three yards, 10 yards, all the way into the end zone, you need to celebrate the fact that you have progressed so that you can continue progressing so that you believe you will get into that end zone.

[05:35] So you will win that game. And if these football players did not believe that they were capable of winning the game, why would they be out on the field? Sometimes, just like in any sport, there’s a huge mismatch between the very good team and the not so good team. So you just expect that one team is gonna win and the other other’s going to lose.

[05:58] But the team that’s destined to lose, doesn’t ever play like they’re not going to win. They have to believe they’re going to win, so they will celebrate every inch of progress. Every tiny step closer to that end zone is progress. And if you make it those 10 yards before you run out of those four tries, you get four more tries.

[06:21] It’s like a reset. Now you’re exhausted. You’re sweating. You’re like, well let’s do it all again. And they’re committed to that. And we’re just talking about a game. This is a game that grown men play, but it’s a great illustration of why it’s so important to celebrate tiny pieces of victories. You know, at the end of the game there’s a winner and there’s a loser, but that’s just what the fans see.

[06:48] Every single person on that field, regardless of whether or not their team won, has stats that they made. They have metrics that they are measured against individually, regardless of the win loss record. You know, like a quarterback. They measure how far he threw, and even though losing quarterback can still have more yards thrown.

[07:10] That’s important for ranking who the better quarterbacks are. You know, you may have heard of this dude called Tom Brady. He’s won more Super Bowls than anybody in the entire existence of football. He and his team have won these Super Bowls, but he isn’t always the most valuable player of the league. Most of the time that honor goes to not the best quarterback of all time.

[07:40] If you compare them to Brady, you know. Brady’s the one playing 20 games a season, getting his body rocked and still leading his team to victory, that’s amazing. But there are other dudes on the field that have the same job who are throwing for longer distances, and those dudes are winning awards, not the dude winning the Super Bowl.

[08:01] So that’s another thing: that even if you don’t make it into your end zone, you know, if you don’t make it all the way to your goal, your stretch goal, you still made some progress. You still advanced in your field, in your abilities, in your skills. You don’t have to be the Tom Brady, the ultimate winner of all the games.

[08:27] You have to make sure that the metrics that matter for you, the skill development that matters for you, is also improving. So I want you to think about that. How can I, as I am working towards my goals, working towards improving myself, what can I look at and celebrate as the progress towards them?

[08:52] Remember the ultimate objective, your stretch goal is to get into the end zone. But on the way there, you get four tries to move one 10th of the field and every single step of progress towards those 10 yards, that one 10th of the field is an opportunity to celebrate advancement and progress. Okay? That is one of my favorite analogies to talk about progress and celebrating wins because I just, I see it on my TV all.

[09:20] If you would like me to relate this to a different sport or a different realm completely, let me know. I, I really want to explore it. This one’s easy for me because I love football. I play fantasy football, which means that those players’ stats, regardless of their win loss record, are more important to me and the money I’m betting on my team than whether or not ultimately the team wins.

[09:47] And this is really great if you don’t understand football, cuz it’s a really great way to learn it. And if you don’t have a football team, even better. I have two teams, , so that’s not my issue. Anyway, I wanna wish you all a wonderful day. Stay hydrated and if you have any questions, let me know. In the meantime, that’s a burrito.

[10:06] Wanna talk about this week’s episode? Feel free to DM me on Instagram. My info is always in the show notes. And if you’re looking to be a guest in the future for the Maker Muse Podcast, check out the guest form on my website at themakermuse.co. Yes, themakermuse.co. It’s also linked in the show notes.

[10:24] And hey, uchisimas gracias for listening to another episode of the Maker Muse Podcast. Are you subscribed? If not now would be a great time to do that. New episodes come out every Tuesday. I’m on Apple, on Spotify, wherever you listen. And then can I ask you a favor? Could you please tell all of your friends and family about it? ¿Sus amigues, su familia? Because if you love it, they probably will too. And I’d really appreciate it if you could rate and review it wherever you’re listening right now.

[10:52] ¡Hasta la proxima!