How to Survive the Football Season

Have you decided how to survive the football season yet? If you are a fan, obviously there is no problem. In fact the only challenge is making sure that your schedule is clear and you have television access to all of your favorite college and pro games. But what about the rest of the population, male and female, that really don't care about football and yet find themselves surrounded by football mania from the first late summer exhibition games to the final whistle of the Superbowl? For them,and that may mean you, it really is important to land on a workable system that will allow you to survive the football season and emerge at the end with your sanity and friendships in tact. It can be done.

Sit Back and Enjoy It. I like to apply an old adage that a college professor shared which suggested that when something really bad was coming into your life ( like an exam) which had some inevitable results (like failing if you didn't study) then the thing to do was to sit back and enjoy it. It made sense then and it makes sense now. Face it there really isn't much you can do if you are in a household where there are football fans - siblings, spouse, children. They are going to watch the games, they are going to talk incessantly about the games, they aren't going to really notice whether or not you are interested in the games and that can go on for 5- 6 months. There is an inevitability about it. You know this because you have observed the same phenomenon materialize every year. Why would this year be any different? But if you aren't interested in football you can still survive the football season if you just decide this year to sit back and enjoy it.. Really, it's possible.

Learn enough about the game to understand who is winning and losing, choose a team to cheer for, give about 5 minutes weekly to checking the standings of the teams to see how your team is doing and let it go.

Recognize a Good Thing When You See It. A second approach can be to view the prolonged extravaganza known as the football season to be a gift with your name on it. That's right, even though the season seems to be all about your spouse's, son's or boyfriend's obsession, it really can be all about you. You just have to recognize the gift that is right in front of you.

Think of all things you can get done or enjoy doing during a three hour football game and not just the laundry, making snacks for football fans in your front room or late fall yard work. There are books to be read, naps to be taken, long relaxing baths to be enjoyed, old friends who also have no interest in football to call and chat with for hours on the phone. You can listen to music, use the computer ( except when fantasy football scores need to be checked) go shopping, visit a friend, take a walk and all without any feeling that you are being selfish or leaving anyone out of your activity. Truth is they have taken themselves out and are happy with their choice. There just is no reason why you shouldn't be happy as well.

Discover Your Own Obsession. What really seems to work for some people who are trying to survive the football season is to block out the first downs, forward passes and field goals with their own terms coming out of their own brand new obsession. Imagine the great personal development you could achieve if each year you selected your own personal obsession and spent all the time others are spending on football on a positive obsession of your own.

It really doesn't matter what it is as long as it appears to be something for which you have a real passion. You don't have to sit back and enjoy football or come up with some new occupation to fill time each week when the games come on. You just need to have at the ready the materials you need to enjoy, practice or develop your own fall/winter obsession. Maybe you have always wanted to write poetry, paint, get into photography, produce the great American novel, play tennis, keep tropical fish.

You are only limited by the length of a football game, or two each weekend and your own imagination. It seems likely that no matter what hobby or avocation you select to develop you can make some real progress if each and every time your boyfriend, husband or whole family sits itself down in front of a football game you take yourself to another part of the house and concentrate on that obsession.

The football season need not be a choice between boredom and bickering. You can find a way to survive the football season by selecting and sticking to these three choices: sit back and enjoy it; recognize a good thing when you see it; or discover your own obsession. If you really put your whole self into surviving the football season you may decide fall/winter is really a wonderful time of year after all. It can be done.