By JACK GODBEY

Community columnist

It seems that everyone is finally coming down from Super Bowl fever. I, for one, am very glad. I don’t follow football and with apologizes to the sports fans out there, I have always thought it was a bit ridiculous for grown men to be overpaid to play a game, especially when we have deployed military who don’t receive near the attention that athletes do. 

However, I realize that my opinion places me in the minority, as it seems that everywhere I went last week someone would ask me who I thought would win the big game. I couldn’t help myself but to have a little fun and responded that I didn’t know who would win because I didn’t follow baseball. 

To my amazement, I have heard several people say they watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials. Can you imagine people doing this with any other show? They wouldn’t like the program they were watching but they tuned in anyway just to watch the commercials. 

The advertisers put forth their A game and try to make an advertisement that will try to outdo their competitors and be remembered and talked about the next day. What a shame the advertisers only put forth the effort to make good commercials once per year. 

Can you imagine doing this with your job? You spend the entire year doing lackluster work with no creativity and little effort and once per year, when someone is paying attention, you actually put some effort and thought into your work. It wouldn’t work out for most of us.

This got me thinking about how it has become the norm in our modern world to not put any effort into getting where we want to go. If it doesn’t come easy, then many times we stop trying. We very often fail to realize that one of the major factors to success in life is putting forth all our effort and doing what it takes to succeed. 

This is true in our relationships, our jobs and our health. We can talk about it all day but nothing changes until the effort is put forth. 

We all have that one friend or co-worker who complains constantly about how horrible their life is. I have found those who complain the most are the same ones who are not willing to give the maximum amount of effort needed to change things and just go through life only doing what is easy. They wonder why their lives are horrible, not realizing that it’s because they put no effort into it yet expect things to magically work out. 

Some of these folks are so lazy I have to wonder, if they died would they go to Heaven or would they wait for someone to pick them up? We have all seen those people. They are the same ones who ride the little electric cart all over Walmart then sprint across the parking lot to avoid the rain. 

The people who get to live their dreams are the same ones who have sacrificed comfort and convenience in order to achieve their goals. I came from a world where I was taught to work for what I wanted, and they from a world where trophies are given out just for trying. Remember, only the winning team receives a Super Bowl ring or at least that’s what I’m told. 

 

Jack Godbey is a resident of Danville and is a published author. He can be reached at wizardman66@live.com.