So, a couple of weeks ago, I’m watching the final basketball championship game,  LA Lakers versus the Boston Celtics. 

You might assume I was rooting for the Lakers, seeing as how I live in Los Angeles, but as it turns out I was rooting for the Celtics. Why? Not necessarily because I’m a Celtics fan, but because I love to cheer for the underdog.

And this got me thinking. Really, it’s that simple sometimes. If you didn’t know watching a sporting event can often an inspire an epiphany. 

This is what I realized, when I watched the Lakers win. I always identify with the underdog, not the winner.

Now of course, underdogs can be winners. I think it’s fair to say that we all love watching an underdog who rises to the top and WINS! Yes? But the on the flip side do we like the winners, the one’s who win almost all of the time, the one’s who expect to win, the one’s we expect to win? The Lakers are a good example of this.

Since I’ve lived in L.A. going on 10 years now, I think the Lakers have one maybe 4 or 5 of the last championship games. Please don’t quote me on my sports statistics. And yes, Sean has fully informed me that the Lakers Team does indeed have enough money to recruit some of the best, if not the best players in the League. But, you see this still makes the Lakers winners. The fact that they have that much financial backing to get those players, makes them a winner.

In fact Los Angeles, the city of angels, and what I also like to call the city of dreamers is a city that boasts winners. No, not everybody wins here. But a lot of people play to win here and those that win, often win BIG. 

This isn’t a post where I’m going to go into the dynamics of how people win or if they win fairly or not, or what winning means to each individual. It’s true that people can be winners in their lives using different tactics. However, what I’ve noticed is that people who win have this in common: they assume the role of the winner.

There was moment in the final minutes of the championship game where the Lakers shifted. You could see it. Even Sean said, "The Lakers are ready to win it", which he was not pleased about because let’s just politely say that he has 'issues' with that team. In fact, I think he’s not alone in his 'issues' because when they did win, while accepting the championship trophy, even the owner of the team said something to the affect of "Nobody wants to see us win, and this gives us even more motivation to win."

That’s when I thought, wow! a winning team that people are tired of seeing win. I mean really, look at our culture. You see it in the celebrity world all the time. We build people up and then when they’re at the top, {maybe they’ve 'won' a little too much for our liking?} we can’t wait to see them fall, and we start tearing them down. Maybe this is just human nature? If so, I’m sort of over it.

My theory on this behavior is that most of us don’t identify with winning. Oh maybe every once in a while, or just once we expect to win, but I’d say that most of us don’t approach our life every day expecting to get what we want, succeed, or win, in whatever way we define it ~even if it’s just finding a good parking space.

Winning all the time seems like something that only certain, 'special' people get to experience.

Here’s where I fit it on all of this. I love the underdog, always have, always will.  And that is exactly how I’ve lived my life. I work really, really hard, struggle for a long time and then finally when I’ve exhausted all options, I WIN! Then I do it all over again. Now, let me explain this further. When I look at the overall picture of my life I am a winner. My life is just too good for me not to feel like a winner. But that’s just it. A} I’ve won with an underdog’s attitude and B} My perspective has not been focused on how I’ve already won, but instead on where I haven’t yet won. And that’s where the struggle begins. It’s all in my perspective. It’s like I need the uphill battle to motivate me, to add excitement to my life. And this relates specifically to what feels most important to me at any given moment. One day it might be my career. Well, often it’s my career. Another day it might be a personal challenge I’ve been facing. In either of those scenarios, I feel like the underdog, hoping to win, but not expecting to win.

I mean let’s face it, when I played on my high school tennis team,  I was the girl that played the longest tennis matches ever. It was like my momentum didn’t kick in until I was facing a potential loss mid-way through the match. Very often I did win those matches. While they were fun, and exciting, they were also exhausting. 

The other truth of the matter is that, and I’m not proud of this,  I’ve never been a fan of people who win all the time. I get bored with the usual winners.  Now after my epiphany, I realize that someone who wins all the time challenges my own desire to be a winner. It’s a similar effect to the 'so jealous' post that I wrote before our trip to Paris. If they didn’t win so much I’d feel better about not winning as often as I’d like to. When they win, I realize it’s possible, and instead of using what’s possible as motivation I compare myself to them and feel like I’m coming up short. But, if I’m really honest with myself, I’ve also held myself back. I’ve been afraid to win too much, for the fear that people might, not like me, get jealous, and secretly hope that I won’t win next time. It’s a little like those times when you might feel hesitant to share the all the good things happening in your life because the person next to you is having a bad day. I’m afraid that I might lose friends along the way. Kind of ick right? I wish it wasn’t true, but it’s happened. While I like to think of myself as the kind of person that does celebrate people’s wins, it’s taken practice. Along the way I know I’ve put people down, and alienated myself from them because of their successes. Sorry people, I’ve done that too. Not anymore.

Long story short, as I watched the close of that game, confetti pouring down on the Lakers and the fans in their home city. I wondered what it would be like if I started identifying with the winners? What if I just expected to win more often in my life?  What if I celebrated other winner’s victories with as much excitement as my own? What if I stopped making the goals I have for myself such a struggle? And what if I expected all that I want in my life to happen?

It might feel like a really nice way to live my life.  And I might just feel like a winner every day.