Wednesday, October 27, 2021

10/27/21 Can You Shake A Loser Mentality?

     I don't want to be mean but Wife finally had enough of one of Baby A's friend's constant negative attitude and she kind of let him have it.  I thought it was funny, not sure I would have done it that way, but I would have addressed it at some point.  The kid was in our car because Wife was giving him a ride home.  This is one of Mijo's close friends and we give him a ride every now and then and he has come over to the house for sleepovers, so he is not a stranger to us.  He has a constant downward look at life which our son always mentions that it is an annoying feature about him.  He is a lineman like Baby A and is also a big guy, but he has no confidence.  If anything, our son has too much of it.  During the summer, he was constantly impressed by how much our boy would lift in the gym.  When Mijo would yell at him to get him pumped up and get him to do more than he was comfortable doing, he surprised himself and could usually do it, but even after lifting say on a squat, he would then say "I got lucky, I won't be able to do that next time..."  With that kind of self worth, it is hard to succeed, always looking for something negative to prove that you don't deserve more.

    In the car, he was going on about how they are going to lose to this week's competition.  This is another team they could beat, other teams they have beat have beat them, so they are not a great team.  Last week was a very close loss that left them drained and feeling bad, but like any other thing, we must move on and face the next challenge.  Wife does not like to hear that sort of BS and she told him to stop thinking that way and talked to him like we do our boys.  Our boys believe they are great because we have always told them that they are, we don't make excuses and we try our best, that is all we can do, out in the world.

    Does the score matter at the end of the day?  We would all like to go undefeated and be the absolute best but the reality is we go out there and we win and lose as a team.  If you went out and gave it everything you had, if you prepared as best you could, if you didn't cheat and try to hurt other people, then you have nothing to be ashamed about, you gave it your best.  I think that is the lesson to learn from football.  It isn't the score, it's learning to work with others, trusting others to have your back, being selfless and sacrificing for the good of the whole.  Those are the important lessons to take away from team sports.  It is about the same thing in any endeavor that requires a group of people working together, you have to let go and trust that others will take care of their responsibilities, and sometimes, when things work just right, you end up getting a win as the cherry on top.

No comments:

Post a Comment