Saturday night, Doug and I stayed in to watch the Notre Dame Football game. It was a big one, The Fighting Irish versus Ohio State Buckeyes. It came down to the very last second and, unfortunately for us, Ohio State won (Congratulations to all the Buckeye fans, especially my sister-in-law, Carol!)

As always, the next day, all of the Monday morning quarterbacks came out—but in the case of college football, it’s Sunday morning quarterbacks. What happened on the last play of the game was Notre Dame only had 10 players on the field, not 11. All the Sunday morning QBs asked Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame’s head coach, “Why didn’t you take the penalty and try to get an 11th player on the field? You lost the game on this decision!” Unfortunately, we will never know what would have happened with 11 players. It’s, sadly, water under the bridge.

I share this story with you because we are our own Monday morning quarterbacks. We let that cruel and unrelenting dialogue go on inside our own heads. Why have the, “Why didn’t you…,” and the, “You should have…,” going on all the time. I felt sorry for Freeman and I feel sorry for you and me as well—that dialogue is unhealthy and unhelpful. We make decisions based on what we know at the time, in the present moment. Monday morning quarterbacks have the luxury of looking back at an event—it’s not the same as a present moment decision. Freeman can’t stop the press, but we can stop the internal dialogue inside our own minds that is cruel and unhelpful with this: “I made the best decision I could at the time, now let’s move on!”

Let’s GO! WE GOT THIS!
Beth