Margin for Error

“Time and again, UK [football] players [1-6 on the season] saw what their new coaches had been harping on all season: how slim the margin for error is and how everyone needs to play well to eke out a win … The [one-touchdown] margin on Thursday night was the shoestring a [Mississippi State] Bulldogs defender latched onto to stop Raymond Sanders when he appeared to be breaking loose on fourth down for the go-ahead score late in the game.”

Lexington Herald-Leader

Saturday, October 26, 2013 

Well, almost a shoestring margin …  Unfortunately, there were many shoestring moments in the workings:  There were dropped passes, passes that were overthrown, passes that were under-thrown, broken plays, missed blocks, missed tackles, failed defensive assignments, penalties, 4-6 inch differences in ball placement by the officials … a lot of “little” things that ended up in a one-touchdown loss.    

Fact of Life 1: “Little” things – as well as some bigger things – are going to go against the grain of success due to outside forces … like referee decisions, the bounce of the ball, wind speed and direction, turf integrity, etc. … not to mention the trickery or tenacity of the competition.  These are “givens”.  Life’s journey to glory is like swimming upstream.  One has to have enough ammunition (skills, a cold-cocked playbook portfolio, uncompromising determination, disciplined practice/preparation, focused mental acuity and nothing-left-on-the-field fortitude) to both minimize or eliminate internal challenges and overcome external challenges.  All other things being equal, the team that makes the fewest mistakes – and it only takes ONE fewer – is going to win.  All other things NOT being equal – or being MORE than equal – requires exacting perfection in execution by the underdog.  The GOOD NEWS: Upsets DO happen! 

Fact of Life 2: We’re going to make mistakes even when we don’t intend to and don’t “mean” to.  [Check out the use of “reign them in” instead of “rein them in” in the 10/14/13 blog “Terrorizing the Demons” … thanks to Alan Bettler, who apparently knows his way around both royalty and horses, for reporting the infraction!]   In such cases, it helps to have an independent pair of eyes and ears for reference – preferably before a product leaves the cutting room floor (!) – plus a few extra points already on the scoreboard.  [If you’d like to become a cutting room floor editor for the Life Mastery Musings blog, please let the Quartermaster know!]

Fact of Life 3:  Preparation and repetition are the great equalizers.  Nothing beats a timely start, an early first draft/field test and multiple, dogged repetitions/ reformulations … applied against uncompromising standards.    

Here are some sobering insights into less than stellar outcomes where the margin for error is diminishingly small:

 

Fact of Life 4: Margins for error get smaller the higher one goes on the totem pole.  Exhaustive practice in “getting it right” will pay major dividends, whereas missing the mark – by almost any margin – will be a sanctionable liability.  Make your mark!  Quartermaster