Listened to the over-believers

While I was running today I thought about my granddaddy. He was a quiet, kind man. He was probably the nicest person I’ve ever known. He wasn’t overly….well, anything. He was quietly everything. The one thing he always made me think was that I was awesome. It’s not like he said, “you are so smart and talented”, but he somehow said the things that made me believe I could. Could do whatever….be the best water skier, the strongest girl, the best fisherman, the best flute player, the smartest college kid.

Then there are “the others”, many more of them that say, “Oh you can’t do that, that is never going to happen, that sure sounds hard, do you really want to do that….” I realized that those people are poison, a slow poison that kind of seeps into your heart and your brain and make you tired and defeated.
I have a friend who is a writer (an actual author, not a hack like me) and he writes about over-believing in his kid a lot. So, I’m sort of stealing his words, but it really explains the people in my life that have made the biggest difference in who I am now and who I want to be in the future. Honestly, there aren’t that many of them. I think it’s because people who over-believe don’t need to demoralize others to make themselves feel successful. And that, my friends, is very, very rare.

As I ran, I thought about the people that make me believe I can. What’s funny is that sometimes these same people irritate the hell out of me! Leave me alone….it’s easier to give up than to do something difficult. Seriously, it so much easier!! But, because of them I teach, I run, I lost 110 pounds, and I occasionally do something really, really well. Oh, and I believe I can continue to do good and meaningful things. I am not the best teacher in the world but somebody believes I am and so I teach better. I am not a good athlete but people believe that I can run as long and as far as I can imagine so I keep trying. I am not the best writer but somebody tells me that they think my writing is great and so I keep doing it. I’m not the smartest person but there are people who make me feel like what I think and say has value so I continue to try to learn things.

Everybody should have these people in their lives. They suck the poisonous doubt out of our hearts and brains. Thank you to the people who over-believe in me. You know who you are. :)