When I was younger I was a bit of a football fan. Boy did I love the LA Rams! I even had a huge crush on John Cappelleti. In the late 70s, I was fortunate to have a boss who had friends on the Cowboys team and we'd go out to see them practice during the summer at Cal Lutheran.
In the 90s, I moved to Dallas and our special event company had the extreme honor to work with the Dallas Cowboys organization. But somewhere along the way, I lost interest in the sport and only watched the Super Bowl (and then it was only for the commercials).
The anchors kept saying how the odds were stacked against Brady and the Patriots -how no one had ever come back to win after being down by 21 points. Yet, not only did Brady bring the team back and into Overtime - the Patriots ended up winning the game. The Patriots rose above the odds that were stacked against them to show the world what Super Bowl Champions are really made of. Gotta say they deserved that trophy.
Last night was a life lesson for us all. Think about a time when you had the odds completely stacked against you. Were you able to rise above? Did you sink into a deep state of depression and completely shut down? Or did you get a bit down and then pull yourself up by the bootstraps and just get it done? Usually, I'm later. I can get a little down under but then something always seems to kick my butt into gear. Probably part of it has to be that I'm the primary breadwinner and caregiver in our household. That's a huge responsibility to bear and sometimes it can be overwhelming. Just ask me when I had my last vacation!! HAHA!!
But I've learned in life that things are going to happen. Life gets messy. It's not what happens to us that's what really important but how we respond to what happens that is. In the moments when I've been able to pull myself back, breathe, and just flow with the change and come from a responsive place then things usually work themselves out. But if I get in my own way, Lord have mercy. It rarely ever works out. I find that reacting to something is never in (at least my experience) my best interest.
I'm a huge Jeopardy fan and one thing that I've found interesting through the years I've watched is how contestants react/respond on the show. For example, quite often if someone gets corrected by Alex when they give the wrong answer or they get the points taken away after the fact, quite often that player never seems to pull themselves back together. I've yet to see a contestant win once they've allowed themselves to be taken out of the game by giving up. That's the key. Don't let anyone take you out of the game. No one. Not even you. Don't give your power over to someone else. Because it's your game to either win or lose. It's the game of life. So play it to win.
