There is something inherently fulfilling about winning, even if the victory was expected. However, that fulfillment takes on an entirely different meaning when the only person who expected your victory was you, when everyone lacked the faith in your ability to succeed.
In sports, we love an underdog – the team or person that no one expects to win – and we love it even more when, right before our eyes, they are able to earn the victory they were never expected to win in the first place. As a fan, watching it is exhilarating – to see expectations truly defied and odds literally beaten is a spectacle.
There is something inherently fulfilling about winning, even if the victory was expected. However, that fulfillment takes on an entirely different meaning when the only person who expected your victory was you, when everyone lacked the faith in your ability to succeed.
In sports, we love an underdog – the team or person that no one expects to win – and we love it even more when, right before our eyes, they are able to earn the victory they were never expected to win in the first place. As a fan, watching it is exhilarating – to see expectations truly defied and odds literally beaten is a spectacle.
On the other hand, imagine what it must feel like to be that person or player. Self-confidence goes a long way, but it can be isolating, rooting for yourself with the distinct knowledge that you are not only your greatest advocate, but you’re the only one.
For some, doubt and opposition only propels them further – acts as ammunition to do what others believe cannot be done. That’s a unique ability and one that doesn’t come naturally to everyone. How does an underdog persist and thrive knowing that they are expected to lose?
Tiger Woods is among the greatest golf players to ever play the game. In fact, as of 2019, he has held the position of number one in the world for a record of 683 weeks, 13 years in total. Yet, in 2010, among status as number one, he lost his family and a portion of his health, as he suffered from chronic injuries. He never lost his love for the game, and played. However, the world at large had forsaken Tiger, and counted him out. After a nine year drought, just two months ago, he won the Masters, giving the world a glimpse of the Tiger they once loved but had doubted existed.
Woods is a unique underdog in that, he formerly was the expected winner. He knew what it felt like to be on the other side of the bet. He thrived because he knew that the only opinion and perspective that was relevant was his own.
That’s the key. The underdog persists while knowing the odds and people are against him. Tiger persisted, because he acknowledged his faith in his ability to play the game over everyone else’s objections. To allow people’s comments and perceptions of you to affect you, you’d have to be listening to them. They can’t affect you if you’re not listening.
Tiger shows us what is needed to succeed in the face of disbelief: silencing the opposition and stepping out on faith – albeit his own. Like Tiger, you must have faith in who you are, in God’s plan for you and in your God-given ability to wins the game, real or metaphorical.
