In the game of American Football, the main reason teams have to scramble to score points at the end of the game is because they either wasted or let their opponents kill so much time during the game. Both teams have the same 60 minutes to work with, but some are much better at clock management than others – taking a lot of time for plays when they have a comfortable lead, preserving as much time as possible when they’re trying to catch up.
The point is this: while football is a game of skill and strategy and toughness, it’s as much a game of time management as anything else. If a game lasted for six hours (with plenty of time to rest, of course), we would likely witness a number of lead changes throughout the game between two teams that are fairly evenly matched. But that’s not how it works. The winner of the game is the one with the most points when the clock runs out.
So what can we learn from this fact that we can apply to real life? Well, each year has four quarters, just like football. And we all have the same amount of time to work with, just like in football. In our analogy, we could compare money with points. While we might have a surplus of money during certain times of the year (when we’re ahead financially), it only matters how much money we have when the bills come due. If we constantly pay our bills 15 days late, we’re going to hurt our credit and pay additional fees and penalties. Even though we have the money eventually, timing is important.
As we all know, timing is everything…