The Spirit of an Underdog

Yes, the unbelievable is on the verge of happening. Our hometown team & the University my wife Heidi graduated from, the Butler Bulldogs, will play tonight for the national championship. We've watched them excel for years but they've never made it this far in the schools history. In case you don't know Butler it's a small (4,000 students) liberal arts college on the north side of Indianapolis. It's been known for years, in the state of Indiana for its academic excellence. So what does this have to do with my blog "Journey to Joy"? I think we've all experienced feeling like the underdog in life, so let's explore that.

There are times in life that no matter how hard we work we don't feel like we are the best at something. The feeling of not being good enough is common thread that many of us have in our life. I wrote a blog on it a while ago "Being not good enough" check it out if you'd like.

Let's move beyond the feeling of not being good enough & look at the spirit of being the underdog. What's the difference? The difference is how you feel about yourself not what others think of you. When you feel not good enough that's an attitude that you've accepted from the programing of your past. When you're the underdog you believe in yourself but no one else may. In business I think this happens all the time. You aren't thought of highly by a boss but you consistently perform better then the others in the department. There's no way to explain why it happens beyond the fact that we all try to quantify & judge everyone in our life.

I believe that being an underdog can actually be a good thing in life because you consistently come through even though your not expected to!! So why does an underdog succeed? In life, as in sports, the underdog succeeds because of the belief in themselves or their team. They tune out what the world has to say about them & they work together to overcome the obstacles in front of them. This is a great way to live our life. There's way to much noise in the world & unfortunately this noise is often negative (There's no way you can do this or that). Letting go of the noise & believing in yourself is a great way to separate yourself from the others in the world.

Sometimes believing in yourself is difficult because you're not sure you can perform the task at hand. I believe we all excel at much more then we believe we can excel at. Too many of us believe what everyone else has to say about us. Whatever it is that you have to deal with in your life that you believe is beyond you. Take time to let go of the uncertainty, move beyond your EGO and reconnect with your soul (True self). In your soul you will know the truth, allow that feeling to grow. Even if you're uncertain about your true abilities move forward & God/universe will help you along the way. Things don't always go the way we plan but every step forward is a step of learning & growing. Take on whatever challenges you face in your daily life. Learn from everything you do & you can achieve more then you ever believe you can!!

Will Butler win tonight? Who knows, but everyone loves an underdog & anything in life is possible. Accept being the underdog in your life from time to time. Let go of fear & show the world what you can do!!!

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day: "Being the underdog in life has it's advantages. Believe in yourself, let go of the noise from the world & anything is possible!"