This week's Pep Talk: "Prove Them Wrong"

It was a Wednesday evening of mid-March, the weather is spring-like as temperatures hit almost 70 in the Mile High City. The Drive Time with Mac and Doog chat centers on the resurgent Nuggets, promising Rockies and snubbed Colorado men’s basketball team.

The NCAA tournament selection committee had decided, to almost unanimous disapproval, the Buffs were not worthy of the national tournament. The outcry sparked by CU’s impressive resume, highlighted by three victories over a team – Kansas State - the committee proclaimed a fifth-seed. Wait a second, I’m just a simple dude from Missouri but when you beat a team, seeded fifth and you – talking about CU – don’t even make the tournament? That’s when it’s time for the old high-school chant after your team got robbed: “Elevator, elevator, we got the shaft.”

Anyway, the Buffs had, in a first-round NIT game, just beaten Texas Southern before another big crowd in Boulder. I picked up my phone and sent a text in an attempt to get CU’s head coach Tad Boyle on the show the next day to talk about the importance of proving ‘em wrong.

You know, there are many moments in life when we are shocked, disappointed and broken hearted. It’s not exclusive to a team deserved of membership in this year’s national collegiate tourney. No, it’s something each of us must deal with constantly.

What’s the only constant in life? Change, right? There are moments – home, work and elsewhere - when we sit there and proclaim: “What the heck is going on here?” But then it’s our choice: be a victim of the circumstance or student of the experience. It’s our choice. I’d like to recommend – and trust me I’ve screwed up as much as anybody – the latter, not former.

We learn from it, connect with like-minded folks, encourage one another to put fear aside and allow wonderment to win in trying to move forward. But, moving on is done in ways that honor, nurture and add value to the communities we serve. I know, easy to say, almost as easy to affirm but let’s be honest, far more difficult to execute, right?

When disappointment hits, and there are detractors, wouldn’t it be cool to prove ‘em wrong? We rise above, not shrink from, the adversity? We turn life’s lemons into – the heck with lemonade – sweet and savory margaritas?

It’s tough. There will be moments when that “why me, or us” whine will try and creep into our psyches. Don’t let it. Trust me, satisfaction, defined as “gratifying a honorable feeling,” of proving ‘em wrong - whether it’s a basketball team, another group or each of us personally, is well worth the effort.