It’s late in the 4th quarter, with the time
winding down on the opening game of the JV football season. Cross-town rivals pitted in the heat of
battle, the score all tied up with the home team driving deep into enemy
territory for the win. With 3rd
and short threatening, the home team uses a time out to make sure the play call
is perfect. The home team uses it’s last
remaining time out to make sure they have the right play called. As the offense stood huddled around their
coach awaiting the call a young wide receiver spoke up. He wanted the ball, he told his coach what
play was primed for success and looked into the eyes of his teammates and told
them he’d be wide open. The coach saw it
in his eyes and heard it in his voice. The
play was called, just as requested, more like demanded by that confident young
wide out on that sunny Friday afternoon in September. Like a scene from a movie, it couldn’t have
played out any better.
The play was executed with perfection, the running back
carried out the fake beautifully, the offensive line withstood the defenses
rush and the quarterback was perfect with his precision. The wide receiver locked up with his defender
and sold the run. He applied just the
right amount of pressure to the defender to make him think he was really trying
to block him. As the wide receiver let
him go the defender did what was expected, he charged toward the backfield as
the wide receiver darted down field in pursuit of his touchdown. Looking back over his shoulder he found the quarterback
and watched the football fly from his hand in a flawless arc to the end zone to
meet his awaiting hands. The coach knew it
was the perfect call in that situation with his bold young receiver all alone
running to meet up with the ball. The
crowd was on their feet as they saw the play develop from their perch in the
bleachers and began to celebrate the sight of the wide-open receiver running
away from the defense toward the ball.
Sometimes you catch the ball, sometimes you get to be the
hero and win the game. Sometimes you stumble,
other times you fall. And every now and
then you just might drop the ball. That undersized
14-year-old receiver was I. I dropped
the ball that day. I failed. I failed in the spot light, I failed in the
spot light that I actually requested, hell that I demanded. Turn the lights up extra bright coach because
I got this. I failed directly in front
of the Varsity coaches standing out the back of the end zone. I failed in front of my coaches, my
teammates, my friends, my classmates and the packed bleachers with my family
watching. It’s been 19 years since that
game and I still think about it. I don’t
sit around and dwell on it, but it pops up every now and again in my head when
I think life is getting hard.
That moment helped to make me into whom I am. It crushed me to the floor and tried to hold
me there. We all have moments in life
that will try to keep us down, that will hold us down and make us believe we’ll
never be able to stand up again. I was
14 and that day has stayed with me. That
inner demon in my head tried to speak up and say, “just stay down, fake an
injury, you already blew it, there is no shame in quitting.” I’ll give that little devil credit, he was
trying. “Excuse me? What do you want me to do? Who are you trying to convince to stay
down? Get out of my head. You got the wrong guy. Watch me, I’m going to get up.” I got up and I’m so glad I did.
I fought him off that day, and continue to fight him off
whenever he comes back around. It’s in
those moments in life when it starts to become a struggle that the inner devil
in all of us starts to throw around worlds of self-doubt. Those thoughts that will cripple us and keep
us motionless on the floor. But you
know what that little guy doesn’t like?
It doesn’t like someone who fights back.
It doesn’t like someone who is strong enough to take a chance, someone
who will put themselves in the spot light, fall down and stand back up taller.
I see it all the time in the gym, someone gets pissed
they missed hitting a certain weight on a lift or they start comparing
themselves to someone else who has way more time and experience invested
already. Fight back. The biggest enemy in all of our lives is who
is in the mirror. That little devil in
your ear is you, it’s just a you that you don’t want around. That’s on you to evict him. You have to stop him, no one is going to do
it for you. You have to push back. You have to stand up and tell it no
more. It’s testing you everyday in a
variety of ways. It’s wants you to take
the easy way. It wants you to take the
path most traveled, the road with no roadblocks and smooth pavement. It doesn’t want you to take the jagged rock
riddled, icy mountain trail that winds up to the peak of the snow capped
mountain.
When it gets tough and that little devil pops up you need
to knock him down and stand up, get up and go be great. If you do that every time he’ll eventually
become more silent because he knows it isn’t worth it, he knows you’ve
changed. Go be a badass and stand-up
taller and taller every time in this life.
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling,
but in rising every time we fall.” - Nelson Mandela
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