This motivating factor is a legendary tale from Andrew Whitworth's career

The best lessons in life often come when we suffer our worst defeats. Like it or not, life is not one happy string of success after success. Professional sports would be quite boring indeed if the games were predictable. But if the same teams win week after week, isn't that the eventual outcome? As thrilling as other seasons have been, I have to say that the 2023 NFL season of the LA Rams, with a band of rookies and off the radar veterans, was far more thrilling than I had expected.

The truth is that surprises can be pleasant or disappointing. And the same outcome can be either. It's not what happens that dictates our reaction to an event, but rather our expectation of what would happen during that even that dictates our reaction. So failure comes with the benefit of lowering expectations, which creates more opportunity to be pleasantly surprised.

While cheering for a professional football team can be a true emotional roller coaster ride, imagine the ups downs, and hairpin turns that the families of professional athletes must endure all season long, in every season?

The story shared below by Andrew Whitworth is worth watching. He talks about how sad his son Michael felt after the LA Rams lost Super Bowl LIII. While that could be the end of the story, Whitworth proves to be a master of storytelling. He shares that he found his family in the stands, recognized that his son was sad, and then how he flexed for his son to encourage him to cheer up.

That resulted in a father having a meaningful and heartfelt discussion with his son, a conversation that taught a lesson to the son about perseverance, discipline, and reason to train harder. I won't spoil the tale for you. But it's quite clear that Andrew Whitworth, despite all of the other roles he wore in his life, was a husband and father first.

It's uncanny how insightful Andrew Whitworth the father stood on the football field in 2019, instantly recognizing the valuable life lesson that he had the opportunity to teach his son, and his entire family. Losing, it seems, is not just for losers. In many ways, losing triggers the series of events that ultimately leads to standing at the pinnacle of success.

I hope that you find as much value in Andrew Whitworth's tale as I did. The LA Rams may have suffered a disappointing 5-12 season in 2022, but that has only served to galvanize the entire organization to get back on track of success.