Inflection Points

2THE POWER OF GPS (THE GAME PLAN SYSTEM)

A typical NFL game lasts around three hours, from kickoff to when the fourth quarter clock ticks down to zero. The official game time is 60 minutes. And the actual duration of on-the-field action when the ball is in play amounts to 11 minutes.

By any of these metrics, a football game is an afternoon jaunt—over and done with in the time it takes to drive from Philly to New York, or half a sitcom's worth of actual gameplay action. But an immeasurable quantity of planning, practice, and preparation goes into each game. A battalion of coaches, assistants, analysts, physical therapists, groundskeepers, and other professionals spend Monday through Sunday prepping the strategy and conditions for the week's matchup.

As spectators, we get caught up in the moment-to-moment excitement, but we know that a football game requires careful administration. NFL coaches carry colorful laminated cards as they direct plays from the sidelines. These cards display 25 or more plays and game-specific considerations, so players will always have a plan to set into motion. These plays are written and drilled during team practices. The physical nature of the sport may look like brute chaos, but the mentality of football is to organize, through teamwork, toward victory. It reminds us of the old saying, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” You don't see NFL players going out on the field to “wing it.”

Our daily lives, like a football game, require discipline and ...