UNDER PRESSURE

After helping to wash and wax the car and mowing the yard, I settled down to watch some of the Masters golf tournament. I suppose one of the fascinating aspects of competition is what happens when the pressure is on. Some melt while others fight through it, but they all feel it. In this year’s Masters, the player who had led virtually all through the tournament eventually succumbed to the pressure. I don’t prefer to see a guy liquefy like that; I’d rather see my guy win it outright.

In the circle of human motivation, it is often said that life is a game and we are merely players in it. We are not the game itself; so we shouldn’t take ourselves so seriously. As I watched the Masters, I thought about how the game of life mimics what those players go through. While some of the players melt on the golf course (and off), we melt under the pressures of responsibility, family, school, work, and life challenges. Others though keep putting one foot in front of the other, acting in faith, so as to persevere. Some who quickly succumb to life’s pressures seem to think that others just don’t face what they do, and their stress and pressure is something hard to understand or equate with. Yet, we are all under pressure of various sorts if we are engaged in the game of life at all. The greater we deem the personal responsibility or spotlight of even minor tasks, the greater the pressure quotient. The way we handle the pressure is largely an emotional choice. If we let our emotions get the best of us, the pressure can crush us. If we measure our emotions, then we will persevere. I suppose it could be said that the game of life is very hard unless we Master our emotions.