Clutch Time Even When It's Ugly

So as most of you know I am a huge fan of the Dallas Cowboys. Well last night they played the Buffalo Bills and boy was it a game! Dallas had a chance to start with a record of 5-0, something they hadn't done since the early eighties, and Buffalo, well they were just supposed to be plain bad. The game was supposed to be a blowout in favor of the Cowboys all the way.

If you could see my jaw set you would know that 'supposed to' didn't, and still doesn't set well with me.

Anyway, you are likely asking yourself, "another stupid sports analogy Steve?" To which I would reply YUP!

The Cowboys played horrible. They looked flat and Tony Romo our Quarterback threw four interceptions in the first half alone. Can anyone say UGLY?!?

It would have been easy for the Cowboys, and more specifically Tony Romo, to pack it up at halftime. They looked defeated. They looked like they had already been beaten. And let me tell you, most of the second half didn't do much to improve their outlook.

Yet.....they kept fighting. They kept coming back.

They hung around just long enough to make the right plays happen when they needed to.

Defeat is a funny thing. It wants you to give in. It wants you to say, "I am so far down that I could never think of getting up." I know that's what Buffalo was hoping defeat was telling Mr. Romo and the rest of "the boys."

We all face times in our lives where things don't go our way. Tony Romo had statistically one of the worst showings of all time but he didn't give up. He didn't let those whispers of defeat ring forever in his ears. Nope! He knew they could win if they just played hard enough to give themselves a shot.

How many of us give up at the first sign of defeat? How many of us let defeat whisper sweet nothings in our ear as we give up on our hopes and dreams? How many people fail to be clutch even when things get ugly?

Fortunately for us our personal and professional destruction doesn't happen on Monday Night Football in front of millions of football fans. No, I suspect we quietly take our defeat in private and we hide it and what it does to us from the world.

What if you could be like Tony Romo and step out there on the field of life and refuse to give up...refuse to quit? What kind of Ripples might you find yourself creating in your own personal self-confidence and ultimately in your own self-worth?

As Tony Romo watch the winning field goal sail through the uprights to win the game, I suspect he was winked at old defeat and said, "Go away. I hear Buffalo needs you!"

How 'bout them Cowboys!!!!

Believe in yourself even when the odds and the world are stacked against you.

Ripple On!!!

Steve