When an underdog is no longer an underdog

I took the boys to see The American Underdog yesterday. I found myself getting surprisingly emotional. (Allergies, boy. Allergies).

I think it's because the movie reflects one of the greatest truths I've come to discover the last several years. When someone believes in you more than you've ever believed in yourself - that is lifechanging.

Life. Changing.

I looked up the definition for 'underdog.' What I found: a competitor thought to have little chance of winning a fight or contest.

So by that definition, once someone starts thinking someone IS going to win - the underdog is no longer an underdog.

And I can testify - an underdog absorbs all the power of that upside down thinking.

Several years ago, I lined up for a race. I think it was the first race at which I'd ever had a meaningful goal in mind. It may have been one of the first times I'd ever had a meaningful goal in life period - I don't know. But I know this - in the back of my mind - I was thinking.. there is no way I can do this.

Before the start of the race, a friend came alongside me and said, I'm running this race with you. I'm running it and you are going to accomplish that goal. In one of the strongest ways ever, I felt the power of someone thinking I could do something that inside I didn't think I could do.

I felt the power of an underdog no longer feeling like an underdog.

I accomplished that goal that day - side by side with a friend reminding me every step of the way that I would do it. And I walked away from that finish line with a life truth I'm sure I'll never let go of. One that continues to tug at me every day.

Life is not a you thing.

Life is not a me thing.

Life - this life thing we are all doing - it is a WE thing.

In the movie yesterday, the emotions were triggered every single time someone believed in Kurt Warner in a way that was more powerful than he could ever believe in himself. When his wife believed in him, when his coaches believed in him, when former teammates believed in him, when the dude he worked with stocking grocery shelves believed in him - I had tears.

I had tears because I realized this wasn't an underdog story at all. This was a life story.

This was the story of just how beautiful life can be for all of us when we discover life is not a me thing - or a you thing - life is a we thing.

If we ever fully embraced that truth - there would be no more underdogs.

There would likely still be a lot of tears, but the underdogs would all be winning.