What Tom Brady, You & Me Have In Common

Photo by Spenser Sembrat on Unsplash

“Who’s that guy they keep showing on the TV, Mommy?” Mav asks as Super Bowl LIII kickoff nears.

“That’s Tom Brady,” I answer. “He’s probably the best quarterback ever. He’s been in 9 Super Bowls and won 5 of them,” I say, in between bites of loaded veggies nachos.

“Really?” Mav replies. “I think I want to throw him in the garbage then.” This throwing-in-the-garbage talk is an inside joke he shares with his Uncle Aaron, but his quickness to offer it to Brady makes me curious.

“Why, Mav?!” I ask.

“He sounds really good, too good,” he answers, then goes back to snacking on Goldfish and La Croix.

My heart falls a little. Mav is only four years old, yet he’s already picked up on a thought pattern adopted by many people: a displeasure or unhappiness for other’s success and good fortune.

Instead of seeing someone like Brady who has embraced his talent and thinking, “Wow, he’s amazing. Good for him,” we think, “No one should be that good. I hope his winning streak ends.” Or, “He’s just lucky,” and secretly wish him misfortune. Or “let’s throw him in the garbage…”

But here’s the thing, we should be celebrating one another and the incredible talents we’ve been given and the successes we’ve worked our butts off for. We should be lifting other’s up, even if they are already soaring high in the sky. We should want good for all human beings.

Too many of us don’t. Too many of us live with a lack mindset where we think if someone else has success – in parenting, business, art, love, football, whatever – that means there is then not as much opportunity and success left over for us. With a lack mindset we believe that our world is like a pie, and when someone else has a piece of it, there is less pie available for us.

This is not true, my friend. The truth is that we live in an abundant world. There is no limited pie. We literally live in a planet that is part of an infinite universe. An infinite universe! There is just as much joy, success, love and abundance available for you as there is for every other human being on this planet. Your success might not look like Tom Brady’s, but by embracing your talents and your unique you-ness and choosing to lift up others rather than put them down, you will be lifted just as high and shine just as bright.

To me, its invigorating to be around people who fully embrace their unique genius and share their gifts. I saw Justin Timberlake and Imagine Dragons in nearly front-row seats last year and still get goosebumps thinking about how awesome it was to witness and be so close to artists expressing their greatness and truly enjoying themselves while doing so.

I experience a similar feeling in my coaching mastermind where we work just as hard to help one another be successful as we do for our own businesses to thrive. And the friends I choose to surround myself with are my #1 cheerleaders. We want all of us to own our greatness, our strengths, and share them with the world.

This is what I want for my boys. It’s what I want for my husband. It’s what I want for me. And it’s what I want for you.

When you’re around people who are uber successful, do you expand or do you shrink? If you shrink, it’s possible there are limiting beliefs from your past still ruling your thoughts, thus defining your life and causing you to lack confidence. I try to surround myself by as many people who are up to big things in their life, because they inspire me. I may get a little nervous around someone I admire who I’m meeting for the first time, but I believe in my own self-worth and know I have a similar greatness and similar potential inside me.

If you aren’t celebrating the success of someone, it’s likely you feel a resentment or jealousy towards them. I’ve learned that jealousy is an indicator of what you want in your life. It can be a map towards what you should be doing, believing, or creating. When you feel jealousy arise, ask yourself why its present. (Journaling on this will get you the best results.) And then identify what action steps you can take to accomplish what it is that you want for your own life. Staying in thinking keeps you stuck. Being in action causes change. So take action.

Remember, we all deserve joy and success, whatever that uniquely means for you. You have the choice to create it for yourself, to celebrate others and lift them up, and to rise high and shine bright. Imagine the kind of world we’d live in if we all unleashed our own individual Tom Brady, and then were celebrated and supported for doing so.

This world is not too far away, my friend.

Cheers to your success!

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