Dropping the Ball

Someone was being interviewed about Covid and the lock down.  He said something that caused me to think “the most dangerous time in any undertaking is not when the pressure is on, but when it is off.”
Because I am into sport, I find that is what I think of often when it comes to proving or otherwise something to myself.  So often a team works hard to get to number one.  But when they get comfortable in the role, they so easily get knocked off their perch.
Covid shows me so much.  A struggle.  Hard work.  Problem seemingly under control.  Cruise control.  Some defenses down and overtaken by the same thing again (avoiding that is the struggle now).
Empires can be guilty of the same thing.  Often when they are most comfortable, they are most vulnerable.  I do not believe it means someone needs to be hyper vigilant all the time, but someone needs to be on their guard all the time (or if I am rich or influential enough, get others to ensure my safety – ie food tasters).
Security is built on defense.  I can sleep at night because I feel we have a number of decent deterrents.  There is no doubt though, if someone stronger than me comes along and is determined to get through, they will.  I know someone who has been robbed four times.  The last time they took the hinges off the door to gain access.  I have heard it said that what is in place is for the honest people.  Someone practiced in breaching defenses will unless I am on to what they plan.
We in Australia have had a good run with Covid.  Looking around the world we have so much to be thankful for.  Our defences have been good – but not impenetrable.  To me it seems unsafe to take for granted that we have weathered the storm because things could change so easily and quickly.
To me WA is a case in point.  They had had no locally transmitted cases for 10 months.  It seems like yesterday they were crowing about their success, and today they are in lockdown.
For me, it is easier to talk about then do.  I have known a measure of success but definitely not a perfect score.  It is so easy to forget struggle.  Struggle can give way to success and it becomes the new normal.  Eventually the struggle is forgotten, and the reason for my success can be attributed to something it wasn’t.  Before I know it, I am at ease in the new situation and I find myself twice as much entangled in what I had struggled with in the first place.
I guess it is why the advice I received about 35 years ago seems like it was given only yesterday.  “It is not how close to danger you can go but how far you can keep from it.”
I love comfort.  But I do not want to be so comfortable that I drop the ball and I am back where I started or worse.