I recently heard an interview with Bears DE Adewale Ogunleye where he talked about the influence that Rod Marinelli, the Bears new Defensive Line Coach has had on Adewale’s thinking. Rod Marinelli preaches over and over that you need a short memory. If you have a great play, get a sack, or hurry the quarterback, forget about it. If you get beat for a long run, don’t worry about it. Rod talks about how rare it is that you would get a sack on two consecutive plays. If you beat the man across from you once, why not again? Because you are thinking about how well you played, how good you are, instead of focusing on making the play in front of you. “You have to win that rush you’re in, enjoy the moment, then let it go and do it again,” says Marinelli

When I first got started in business for myself, one of my mentors taught me a fairly structured sales process. I didn’t know any better, so I went out on my first two appointments and followed the process he had taught me and sure enough, both appointments resulted in engagements! I’m 8 days into my new business, I have two clients and I’m batting 100%. I must be a sales genius! Over the next 4 months I went on 27 more new business appointments. How many of them did I close? Zero, not a single one. Finally out of frustration I went back to my mentor an threw myself at his feet, “What am I doing wrong?” He asked me what I was doing in these 27 appointments, of course I wasn’t following the process, I was a sales genius, so I started winging it and the results showed it.

Mistakes are precious events, they are lessons that can help us to improve our performance. Successes are also precious, they keep us going, and they are evidence that we have learned a thing or two. Neither are informative about who we are. We are not as bad as we feel after a mistake, nor are we as good as we feel after a success.

In football they are lucky. They can focus on “winning the rush that you are in” then on Monday you can sit and watch film and learn from your mistakes. That same discipline would be great in business too. Don’t take yourself too seriously, either in victory or defeat, but have a time of reflection. A weekly review, time with a coach or mentor, or a monthly off-site meeting, where you can review your performance, learn from your mistakes and practice new behaviors.

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Brad Farris is a small business advisor with Anchor Advisors, Ltd. in Chicago, Il. Since 2001 Anchor Advisors has been helping creative professional firms to grow, by helping them clarify their purpose, get the most from their people, keep their eye on key performance measures, and implement consistent processes.

The sporting year has two seasons as far as I’m concerned; Cycling Season, and Football Season. We are in the midst of an amazing cycling season, cool weather, sunny mornings and smooth pavement has made this a fantastic year to be on my bike.

But as much as I love to ride, it’s football that really gets my blood flowing. In my house Sunday afternoons are reserved for football from September until February. The only reason I got satellite TV is for football. During the season at least half the hard drive space on the DVR has football games on it. So the opening of training camp is a warm-up to my favorite time of the year.

There are at least eight reasons that football has captured my heart and mind.

1. It’s a great mix of strategy and execution.
Football isn’t just about calling the right plays, though play-calling matters. It’s not just about having the biggest strongest guys, though that helps. You need big, strong guys, who all know and believe in the play, and then execute it well. This doesn’t always happen — so it keeps things interesting.

2. One wrong move and you are dead.
Football is a brutal sport. There is real risk of injury. The very real jeopardy that these men face on the field makes each play exciting.

3. The players give their all, it’s inspiring.
Because there is a risk of injury, when you see players really going for it; stretching for the extra yard, waiting another half-second before throwing the ball, you know they really want to triumph. They are willing to sacrifice to win. In football you see that all the time. Not just in the last two minutes, but the whole game through.

4. The outcome is uncertain almost all the time.
They love to say, “On any given Sunday…” but it’s true, about half the games are upsets every week. Even down by a couple of touchdowns in the 4th quarter a team can fight back to victory.

5. It’s only once a week.
I can afford to reserve 6 hours on Sunday afternoon (and maybe 2 more on Monday night) for football. With baseball or basketball there are games almost every night. It takes too much time to really follow and be a fan. Football is just right.

6. Fantasy Football.
Fantasy changed my football fandom from being a fan of my local team, to being a fan of the whole league. I can watch any team in the league and have interest in one of my fantasy players or a player on my opponent’s team, or just a player I had a few years ago.

7. Knowing the History.
Now that I have been a fan for over 25 years I know a lot of storylines from the NFL. I was a fan of players who are now coaches, and commentators. Teams that were great are now dogs and vice versa. Knowing the history adds drama to the games.

8. Demonstration of Leadership
I’m kind of a leadership junkie. When I see leaders at work I’m fascinated. Football teams are great leadership experiments. You have coaches and assistant coaches, Quarterbacks and captains, and then you have veteran players the exert leadership in another way. All of their interactions play out very publicly and that is fun to watch.

at the list I feel like it still doesn’t explain the compelling attraction that football has on me. What about you?