Rahim Moore: Mistakes and Life

Rahim Moore compares it to life

Ebbs and flows, good and bad. The biggest thing to remember is not the mistake itself, but how one goes about approaching that mistake and how one goes about learning from it. Rahim Moore didn't lie in bed and wallow over what might have been, he picked himself up and went back to work....the very next day.

As a teacher it is uncanny how many times a student will make a mistake only to dwell on that mistake at the expense of the present and future. When I'm teaching music I always tell my kids, mistakes happen--but you can't let them keep you from going forward. Just move on and concentrate on what is coming. I hear a lot of that same mindset and philosophy when I hear Rahim answer questions. What's done is done, there are no time machines, there is no eraser. There is a tool however and it becomes the mistake itself.

Rahim Moore had a strong internal and external support system to cope with that mistake

Over and over, he mentions the support he received not only from in house teammates, but also from other pros and safeties from around the league. He rattles off names such as Peyton Manning, Champ Bailey, Eric Berry, Earl Thomas, and Ryan Clark as those who offered support and guidance while he dealt with and coped with the fallout from that play. It should tell you a few things, first of all, our locker room is united in it's cause and purpose. No finger pointing, no accusations of failure, no shaming whatsoever. They came together and supported their brother in his time in need. Second, fans made more out of that play than his own contemporaries. Our fandom can go through some dark places at time--all too eager to point the finger when things don't go right. Well I'll go ahead and point another one, shame on us. Mistakes are part of life, it's time to move on.

He mentions going out in public and being told bad things about his mistake. All from random people he never met--anyplace where his face was recognized. He tells of walking on and not addressing those words of discouragement. Shame on us.

He tells of putting those words in the back of his mind, not as tools for discouragement, but as tools for vindication. You can tell he badly wants to prove himself and improve as a player, and will strive to be the best. He will succeed, because he wants to.

In everything there is a balance

Ever been at a low point in your life? Sure you have. What have you done? If you're anything like me, you replay those events in your head over and over and over until you start to believe that the mistakes you made are part of who you are as a person--they become your identity. Then you start to believe there is something wrong with you and you believe your current state is justified, not merely because of the outcome, but because you were predestined to get there in the first place. Misery loves company and there's nothing more miserable than letting recent negative OR positive events define who you are as a person, re-writing your entire history with an air of false institutional bias.

Instead of replaying that moment, and other moments of failure time after time until the events ran together and told a convincing yet false tale about himself as a player, he also took time to watch film of the successes he had--careful to avoid the assuring warm blanket on the other end of the spectrum, Rahim Moore knows exactly where he is, where he wants to be, and what it will take to get there.

My biggest takeaway from his words is that Rahim displays a healthy amount of swagger and self-awareness. He names things such as his drive, determination, and work ethic and defines the end result as "sky's the limit"...yet at the same time answers "everything" when asked what he wants to improve. Simply put, Rahim knows of the things already in place that will get him to where he is going and he also knows he has yet to arrive where he wants to be.

There will be improvement, not solely because of a mistake, but because that is the career arc he has set forth for himself.

Time to move on from that play Broncos Country.

Living in the past is counterproductive to the future. Now's the time, and time is continual--marching forward into an ever-evolving future. What that future becomes is entirely up to us.

Rahim Moore knows what that destination is for him and he refuses to let one mistake keep him from getting there.