Change is hard. Staying the same may be harder.

​I watched the final episode of Ted Lasso last night. I advise against watching it if you're feeling the least bit emotional or under the weather. 😭

The truth is I like shows that find my emotions. When they do, I find myself asking why.

Why am I laughing?

Why am I trembling?

Why am I crying?

Ted Lasso left me asking the latter: why am I crying?

I think it was the whole Ted Lasso experience. So many people in the experience, certainly not the least of which was Coach Lasso, were set up to fail.

The coaches and players and team owner and fans and friends and family, they were all in what looked like a no win situation, yet, that's what they did.

They won.

No, they didn't walk away with the trophy, but they all walked away feeling like winners (with the possible exception of Rupert).

Is that one of the secrets in life? Learning to feel like a winner when someone else is getting the trophy.

Is that one of the secrets in life? Having people see you as a winner when the headlines declare it's someone else?

I think so. And I think Ted Lasso showed us how that's done.

A lot of times in life we will land in a place where we feel like we've been set up to fail. Never, though, in any of those situations, are we required to act like a failure.

We can land in places in life when doing the right thing can look and feel like the hardest thing to do, but never are we required to do the wrong thing.

I'm amazed that through 3 seasons of Ted Lasso, when you were able to see so many characters change, Ted Lasso never did.

In many stories the beauty and emotions come from watching what a character becomes. With Ted Lasso, though, the beauty of that character was how he managed to stay the same.

If you think about it, it was his ability to stay the same that sparked the dramatic changes in so many people around him.

Ted Lasso showed us all that situations in our lives can change. Sometimes dramatically. Yet, we don't always have to.

Situations can feel unkind, but we can remain kind. Situations can feel discouraging, but we can be an encouragement in the middle of them. Situations can feel hopeless, but we can be the hope.

The situation can be losing, but we can walk away feeling like a winner. Especially when our goal is to make the people around us feel like winners.

It's always challenging to change in life, but maybe the biggest challenge is staying the same when life is tempting us to change.

I know some of us are in situations where we feel set up to fail today. Well, Ted Lasso would have us all 'believe' that we are always set up to win.

Be kind.

Be encouraging.

Be accepting.

Be humble.

Believe.

Win.