Most Inspirational Player / Inspiring Others

Last night, my Monday night summer basketball league kicked off it's playoffs with an exciting evening of action.  The Green team (3rd seed) led most of the game before a furious rally by Orange (2nd seed) in the 4th quarter to take a 1 point lead.  Alas, Orange could not hang on as Green eventually won by 4 points.   Playing the second game, My team (Black - 1st seed) led pretty much the whole way but Grey (4th seed) battled hard.  My team barely pulled away for a 7 point win to join Green in next's week championship game.

In between the two games, the league passed out some awards.  The awards were for the Most Inspiration Player for each of the five teams that participated during the summer.   In a bit of a surprise, I was given the award for my team.  

I've had some personal things I've been dealing with for a few months now.  I've had my good days and some not so good days.   Basketball was a good get away, whether I was playing on my Monday / Tuesday night leagues (during the summer) for my Saturday pick up games with some friends.

However, getting the award this particular summer was special.   I needed a "pick me up" and the award made me feel good.  It's not that I needed something external to make me feel better.  In fact, the trophy I got isn't a big deal.   It was the fact that the trophy made me reflect and clarified some things I need to improve on for the future.

While I am generally cool headed on the court and don't take things personally when someone makes a mistake, I am MUCH harder on myself both on the court and in personal things.   I realized I need to take a step back in some of my personal things and be more understanding when things don't go right.

The other thing I realized that I am very blessed in many ways though I haven't been feeling that way a lot lately.   I realized that I need to use some of my gifts to (no pun intended) INSPIRE others.

The reason I thought I needed to inspire others is that this was NOT my first Most Inspirational Player award.   I've gotten a few awards over the years and I detected there may be a trend.  Life may be telling me that I need be more of a good example to others ON and OFF the court.