Football season has returned!

With it come not only the joy of the game, but helpful reminders for managing life.

One example is approaching our day in four quarters, like a football game.

Each quarter is a small game within itself, and each new quarter is another opportunity to reset and begin again.

You can have a bad first quarter. That doesn’t mean you have to lose the game.

You can have a bad first half — and still win the game!

The key is not to let a bad quarter spill over into the next.

Contain it.

Temporarily forget it and move on.

I say temporarily because we can learn from reviewing our bad or difficult quarters. But we can review later. In the moment, we need to play, which means clearing your head and refocusing.

So, if you find yourself having a rough day, pause, chalk it up as a bad quarter, and remind yourself that you still have more quarters to play.

You can still have a good day.

And if your bad quarter happens to come at the end of the day?

No worries. You get to start a new game the next morning.