When Disappointing Effort Yields A Desirable Result

I’m pretty pissed off because my team, the Miami Heat just lost in a spectacularly humiliating fashion on National television. It was the final game of the season with playoff seeding and home court advantage on the line. I rushed home from work to watch the game on ESPN and managed to catch the end of the first quarter. We were up by 20 points. The second quarter was more of the same and we were ahead 24 points at half time! The analysts on ESPN, the NBA channel and online were all talking about how the Heat were taking care of business. The third quarter started. The Boston Celtics scored 2 points, then we scored 3 points and were ahead by 26. After that, the Celtics outscored us 23-2 and we were only ahead by 4 points at the start of the fourth and final quarter. It was frustrating, painful and sickening to watch them implode. I kept screaming the same thing the ESPN analysts were saying incredulously: why on earth did they stop passing the ball to each other, which was how they got such a huge lead over Boston in the first half of the game? It was all hero ball, isolation plays and horrible, lousy shots that were not going in the basket. They scored five points on two made baskets for the entire third quarter. FIVE POINTS. I couldn’t watch after that. I turned to my other television haven, HGTV to watch Property Brothers: Buying & Selling. Once I knew the game was over I checked online to discover we’d lost by 10 points, but get this… We still ended up with the desired #3 seed in the Eastern Conference because another team, the Atlanta Hawks, was playing for the same seeding and lost their game too. This gave them the same 48-34 win-loss record as Miami and Miami wins the tiebreaker based on a bunch of criteria that would bore non-basketball folk. The #3 seeding in the NBA Playoffs, which start this weekend, means we play the first two games at home in Miami. This is key because the Heat plays phenomenally at home, not so much on the road. As tonight’s AWAY game in Boston proved.

Most of my family and friends know how passionate I am about my Miami Heat but they don’t know is exactly why. The team and organization came to my attention when a very famous basketball player went to play for them in 2010. I was a huge fan of that basketball player and his move to the Miami Heat generate a huge uproar. I became impressed with how they handled all the massive amounts of attention, most of it negative. I watched them get to the NBA Finals four years in a row and win two Championship titles. Through it all, they handled it with professionalism, consistency, perseverance and persistent striving for excellence. Even when the famous player left the Miami Heat to go elsewhere, I remained a devoted, passionate member of Heat Nation. They are an organization which prides itself on no drama, choosing quality PERSONALITIES to fit their organization, working hard, helping it’s community, being accountable, innovative and versatile when necessary. Shit, even when they lose they somehow end up winning.

As much as I hate to admit it, I am much like my team. I can be going along like gangbusters with my life, working towards a goal or ah hem, Mission, then BAM! For seemingly no reason, I start to lose momentum and by the time I’m aware of it or decide to do something about it, it’s too late. I’ve screwed up or blown off an opportunity. So far I haven’t screwed up or blown off anything yet, but I’m headed there with Yoga Teacher Training. Suddenly I’m caught up in the fear of not having the money or if I do get the money part squared away, then I may not be physically able to successfully complete the training. I still haven’t been back to my home yoga studio for any classes in over three weeks. Good thing I have an appointment with my kick-ass therapist tomorrow! I’ve got work to do. I have a feeling, just like the Heat, that Life may end up giving me a desirable result despite my disappointing efforts of late.