Tonight was such a great game! It was awesome to see the BYU Football team come from behind during the first half of the game (again!), overcome so many bad calls by the referees, see Tanner, our quarterback, playing even though he was injured last week, and just drive it hard until they won! The game was fun and exciting as I high-fived everyone around me and yelled till I was hoarse. But, it was the after-game interview with the team that really impressed me and taught me something big. Not that I didn't know this principle before - I've heard in my whole life – but I saw it in action, and it had a big impact on me.
Coach Mendenhall was so gracious and positive on the radio – more so than he was during the game (his own confession.). He spoke positively about their strengths, positively about their weaknesses, didn't mention the refs but rather that they suffered from some severe penalties. He had lots of reasons to publicly complain about the referees. There were so many unfair calls and 60,000 angry fans filled the stadium with booing and some unsportsmanlike yelling at the refs. But Bronco was gracious nonetheless, focused on speaking so highly of his team, and explained how during the first quarter he didn't know what he was doing – they tried one thing after another after another until they were able to figure out how to beat the other team. I loved his honesty because...sometimes I don't know what I'm doing and I try one thing after another after another before I can figure out how to succeed. It made me think, "If he does that, I guess I'm OK too!"
Tanner Mangum was equally impressive during the interview. He said that his team just knows they are going to win, even when things look BAD, they just know deep down they are going to win! I watched their body language after some of the really bad calls, expecting to see the stress show, but instead, they stayed loose and seemed oblivious to the stress. They just focused on winning the game and even looked like they were having a good time.
It made me think of how I handle difficult situations, how resilient am I? I've been somewhat resilient with the many hardships I've had, but I struggle with discouragement sometimes, which negatively affects everything in my life. It affects my body language, my ability to smile, and my ability to focus. It affects how much I want to serve other people. It affects how often I go to the temple and how much time I spend reading my scriptures. Tonight, Tanner showed me that I don't have to default to react in the ways I have reacted in the past. Outside pressures don't have to effect me. I can stay focused on hope while things aren't going my way, or when they are just plain hard, and to just keep plugging away with a cheerful attitude - to believe I am going to succeed!
Seeing this play out right before my eyes really caught my attention because this morning I took a minute to read through a list I taped to my mirror: "Changing Thoughts and Perceptions." On one side there are stress reducing statements, and on the other side is a list of stress inducing statements. It's a list I'm usually too stressed to look at....
It suggests changing thoughts to be more positive, thinking thoughts such as:
"It is not worth getting upset over."
"My best is good enough"
"Regardless of how I do, I can learn from it."
And my favorite – "worrying won't solve the problem". (Like I'd ever do that! Pshh.... ;-)
Rather than thinking things like:
"It probably won't work."
"I'm not as smart as they are"
"If I make a mistake, I'm a failure."
"I'm getting nervous."
"I'm not BYU material."
I'm not an expert at football, but even I could tell that the BYU football team played with HOPE the entire time. I could tell that they were not getting down on themselves for making tons of mistakes and disappointing 60,000 fans in the process. I loved how the football team repeatedly said that they stayed positive and believed in themselves and in each other. I saw firsthand how much easier it is to be successful if I keep hope in my heart and believe I will win in the end. Watching them be resilient, teaches me to be resilient!
And I'll admit it's comforting to know that when I make a mistake, it's not in front of 60,000 people who will yell at me, won't be published in the paper, won't be talked about on the radio and national news....my mistakes pretty much matter only to me. I think it would be cool to be able to handle that kind of stress, though. That can be my next project on myself :)
No comments:
Post a Comment