Someone once said that the beauty of sports is certainty. At the end of the game, you can know whether you won or lost. This is a welcome relief from the gray areas of life, where, for instance, you can leave a meeting and say, “What happened in there?”

In sports, not only do you get a final score, but you also get an array of situations that present a problem and demand a response. For instance:

You fall behind early in a game.
Your best player suddenly becomes unavailable.
Your statistics are not what they should be.

In each of these situations, you can examine a problem and decide what to do about it.

Football coach Lou Holtz said, “How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.”

Being behind at halftime requires all kind of adjustments: technical, tactical, and emotional. Most of all, it begs this question: Do I really believe I can come back? Am I willing to do what it takes to come back?

Years ago, John Elway was faced with a very clear situation. His team trailed by seven points in a playoff game, and was 98 yards away from a touchdown. In what has come to be known as “The Drive,” he tied the score and his team won the game in overtime.

Sports will do that. It constantly sets up situations where you can say, “Here are the circumstances. Now what am I going to do about it?”