From my latest article at WorldMag.com:
Most of us make New Year’s resolutions about our budgets, waistlines, relationships, or jobs. We commit to a Bible reading plan or just to read more in general. We want to be better this year, smarter, more mature, more successful. In general, we make resolutions about those areas of life deemed important. How often, though, do we consider the sheer amount of time we spend on sports: watching, playing, discussing, reading? In terms of sheer volume, sports hold a high priority in our lives, and that is why making a few resolutions as a sports fan makes a lot of sense:
- I will not let any team or player’s performance ruin my day. No matter how bad your team is doing, how wide that field goal was, or how much that walk-off homer hurt, it is still not worth having a bad day over. Don’t kick your dog. Don’t yell at your kids. Don’t pick fights with co-workers. Don’t slack off at work. Sure, it’s frustrating, but all of those things you would sacrifice to a bad mood are of much greater significance. (If you think otherwise, you might have some other resolutions to make.)
- I will never make my sports fandom personal. The fans of other teams are not your enemies. If they see you as their enemy, that is their blind spot and you don’t need to take the bait of their insults. As hard as it is to remember, you aren’t on the team and your identity isn’t found in the team . . .
