A Lesson From My Brother

Today, I was thinking about my brother, Scott.  He’s had a rough few years trying to figure out what steps he needs to take in his life.  For a long time, his dream has been to become a professional golfer on the PGA Tour.  You see, he’s a natural athlete and has met great success in every sport he’s every played.  From dominating Little League hitters on the mound to scoring 1,000 points throughout his high school basketball career, Scott Levy has been known as an athlete.  But his golfing brought him even more success as he won tournament after tournament, championship after championship all over the tri-state area.  He had big plans to play in a top college program and then hit the pros.  Scott’s always seen himself as a champion.

Somewhere along the way, his road to success took a detour, and he’s struggled as a golfer for the last few years.  At this point, I have very little of an idea what he’s going to do in the near or far future, and I don’t think he knows a whole lot more.  But I admire Scott.  I admire him because, among all the adversity he’s had, he still believes that in the end, it’s going to turn out the way he’s always planned.

Because Scott Levy believes in himself, and that’s further than most people get to reaching their dreams.

It really is a rare case to see someone stick to it long enough to get even partially up the mountain that stands between us and our dreams.  And the few that do, well, those are the people we make movies about and write books on.  Those are the people that change the world.  Those are the people we begin our lives dreaming of becoming like, but end our lives being jealous of, because they had something we didn’t.

But the saddest part of this story, this story that keeps being told, is that what we didn’t have isn’t success.  It’s not riches.  It’s not fame.  It’s not a “big break.”  It’s a belief that we can accomplish what we set out to.  It’s a determination to become who we always wanted to be.  And if we don’t have that, perhaps we haven’t had people in our lives who affirm who we are.  And that’s probably because the people who should have been affirming us didn’t believe in themselves either.  It’s a vicious cycle of self-doubt.

So what would our world look like if we started believing in ourselves?  I’d like to stick around long enough to see that happen.