When Champions Fall

How often have we watched world champion skaters fall down on the ice while going for the Olympic gold?  And yet we're surprised when it happens. 

Isn't it inevitable, too, that the New York Time #1 bestseller will eventually get booted by a better selling book?  Yet how would we feel should that book be ours and we watch it slip down in the rankings?

I learned Monday night, as I watched my beloved Buckeyes fall down from the #1 perch,  that champions have bad days.  And those bad days sure can feel painful and downright disorienting.

Strange things can come out of bad days.  Like having an ardent Michigan fan hugging me after OSU lost so resoundingly.  As she commented, "Who would have thought arch-rivals would comfort one another?  But we drew together in our support of the Big 10 players.  (When she said that I couldn't help but wonder what would happen in our world if we could find something in common with those we do not like or agree with . . .)

We can learn more about what constitutes a true champion by what follows after the fall.  Does one get up and strut with false bravado?  Or does the grace of humble pie temper one with greater insight and depth for the next round?  Or worse, does one not get up at all?

Even super-achievers have bad days.  Kammie's post describes her own recent bottomed-out funk and what she learned from it.  No matter how great things are going, how much success we enjoy, we may find ourselves in pittsville without advance notice.  Here's some advice she gives, after going into "lock-down" mode:

"When we LOVE and accept ourselves AS IS, when we are in the present moment - good, bad or indifferent - we WIN.  No matter the situation.  No matter if it's high drama, or mellow and mundane - if we choose to love and accept ourselves in any given situation, we actually choose peace."

If champions are made from the inside out, then the inside is where we must turn when we fall.  After catching our breath, dusting ourselves off, we need to look ourselves in the heart, knowing that we are the only ones who can reclaim that champion, should we choose it.   

Only 33 more weeks til college football returns.