You are what you say you are

    In being somewhat of a sports fan I enjoy watching the post game rants of coaches after their team has has lost a game they could have won.  One of my favourite rants of all-time comes from the former coach of the Arizona Cardinals Dennis Green.   After his team lost to the Chicago Bears he goes on a tirade and with anger he says "they are who we thought they were and we let them off the hook, you want to crown them then crown them but they were who we thought they were".  What surprised me about this tirade was the fact  that the coach was so focused on the fact that they failed to beat one of the best teams in the league instead of building up his team he tore down the other one.
    I recently read about a man and his young boy who were on an outdoor adventure when his son had gotten lost.  His son was very scared and yelled out "somebody help me" a voice responded "somebody help me".  Very confused the son then yelled out "who are you?".  The voice responded "who are you?"  Now frustrated the son yelled "You're a moron!" Once again the voice responded "You're a moron!"  Just then his father arrived and was relieved to find his son unharmed.  The son explained the mocking voice to his father who laughed and said son that is your echo.  His father then yelled "You're awesome" and got the response "You're awesome".  The father once more yelled "You can do anything" and the echo gave back that exact response.  "Son that's exactly how life is, whatever you send out always comes back to you" his father explained.
    What we don't realize is that when we go throughout our busy days we are setting up our lives by what we say about ourselves.  When we have exhausted that avenue we tend to want to deflect and attack what we perceive others are lacking to make us feel a little stronger.  The true question then becomes if you go around allowing yourself to believe the truths about yourself such as you are important, talented, more than able, loved, cared for and much more, don't you believe that you will then be willing and able to build up others rather than tear them down?  What we believe about ourselves does have a true ripple effect and it is a positive one.
   Now if I was Dennis Green I would have liked to change my response to something like this "We know what we're capable of but our opponent came out today and got the better of us.  They are a great team but I know that the men in our locker room today are not hanging their heads because they proved that they can play with best of teams today".   Just like that the young son we all have a voice that comes back to us telling us who we are.  We truly are who we say we are so it is truly up to us to dictate whether we become a victim or a victor.