This article is part of our Life on the Other Side of the Game series, which looks at the lessons former athletes have learned in retirement about success, fulfillment and perspective.An NFL career that ends in the Pro Football Hall of Fame is rare enough. But even fewer players have a second act that was just as successful, if not more so, than their football career.And one person can claim the following: a Hall of Fame career, an NFL MVP award, more than two decades as a Supreme Court justice and a Presidential Medal of Freedom.Alan Page did all of those things.As a member of the Minnesota Vikings’ famed “Purple People Eaters” defensive line, Page was named MVP in 1971. After his career, he served on the Minnesota Supreme Court for more than two decades, becoming the state’s first Black justice.Page and his wife, Diane, launched the Page Education Foundation, which has helped thousands pursue higher education. In 2018, he became the first former professional athlete to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.I wanted to speak with Page, 81, about the lessons he carried from football and the perspective he has gained in retirement.Mostly, I wanted to know: How could one person accomplish so much?Professional football and a judicial career seem very different, but I’d love to know if there were core principles or skills that allowed you to achieve success in both. Different only in that they are different things, but the core underlying principles that allow for success are the same, it seems to me, no matter what the endeavor is.It’s the ability to focus on the task at hand. It’s the ability to work hard, the willingness to work hard. Perseverance. Thinking through a problem, analyzing it, making a decision, and then acting on that decision.You earned your law degree while you were playing for the Vikings and then practiced law during the offseason. You also had a family. What did it take to pull that off and show up as the best version of yourself?Understanding that when you’re in the law school classroom, you’re in the law school classroom, and when you’re on the football field or a game is near, you’re not at law school.And yes, while all of that was going on, I had a family and a life beyond football and law school.But when I reflect on that sort of thing, it’s deciding that you want to do something, or that you’re going to do something, and then consciously showing up, as you say, as your best self, or trying to be your best self, in whatever you’re doing. So I didn’t feel burnt out. I mean, if anything, I was energized and motivated by all of it.You don’t have a lot of time to feel sorry for yourself when you’re busy.I love that. Truth be told, my law school education was really a benefit. I had been playing professional football for nine years. Not that I’d done everything you could do on the football field, but I’d done quite a few of them. And so at some level, it becomes a little boring. Boring isn’t quite the right word, but it becomes routine.The classroom and law school gave me something new to think about and do, beyond simply thinking about and performing on the football field.