The Eagles And Their Mojo

I think it’s fair to say that the Philadelphia Eagles have lost their mojo.

How else can you explain what is happening to a team that went 10-1 in their first 11 games and 1-5 in their remaining six games?

Well, maybe they never had any mojo at all.

Maybe they were lazy throughout the season and their laziness finally caught up with them.

It’s definitely possible.

This is a team though that went to the Super Bowl last year.

So clearly something was lost.

What is it and how do they get it back?

First of all, it doesn’t look like they’re enjoying the game at all.

That’s a common feature of people and teams that are in slumps.

They start hating the game.

It’s easy to hate the game when you are colder than a Klondike bar in Siberia.

Yet, if they have the right attitude, they won’t hate the game at all.

The game is not about winning.

The game is about playing the game.

If you are playing a game with 100% focus and concentration on doing your job, you are enjoying the game.

The wins will take that care of themselves, and they are immaterial to your enjoyment of the game.

But if you confuse enjoyment of a game with winning, then, when you lose, you will not enjoy the game.

Are you confused?

You shouldn’t be.

Life is a paradox.

When we focus on doing our job by putting one foot in front of the other, we get back to the basics and begin to enjoy the game.

When we broaden our scope, too much, by focusing on winning, we lose sight of doing the basics that are necessary to win the game.

Thus we are more likely to lose the game when we broaden our horizon’s too broadly by focusing on winning.

It’s very similar to the young Chinese apprentice, who asked his master how long it would take him to become a master.

Ten years said the master.

The young apprentice was dismayed. What if I study twice as hard, he asked.

In that event, replied the master, it will take you twenty years,

The moral of the story is that when your eye is on the prize, you can’t see the stumbling blocks in front of you.

With that stated, what the Philadelphia Eagles need to do is to forget about winning the game.

Instead they need to narrow their focus on putting one step in front of the other.

They need to focus on catching the ball, making the tackle, making the block as it happens in that moment

There should be nothing else in their minds.

Forget about the big picture.

Forget about the victory.

When they focus on putting one foot in front of the other, they will enjoy the game and give themselves a better chance to win.

And this will reclaim their mojo.

Sincerely,

Archer Crosley