If you ever watch a sporting event, you know how important fans are to the game. Players feed off of the energy of the crowd. If the energy of the crowd is down then the players usually don’t play as well as they could. That’s what makes it so difficult for teams to win when they aren’t playing a game in front of their own fans. They want their home team fans cheering them on and giving them the recognition that they desire so that they can push forward and win. So when teams are at home with their fans they know that they will get the encouragement that they need from them. If they’re losing then their fans will cheer them on so that they can beat the other team. And if they’re wining, the fans will cheer for them so that they can keep their energy up so that they can keep on winning.

Growing up, our lives were probably a little bit like teams playing at home because we too sought recognition for accomplishing things in our lives. When we were in school, if we studied hard we expected our teacher to show us how well we had done by giving us an “A.” If you played sports, and you gave it your all, you expected to get a trophy, a medal, or some kind of certificate for your efforts. And if you were lucky, you may have had parents or guardians who gave you an allowance for doing chores around the house. My point is that starting from the time that we were kids we were conditioned to expect to get some sort of acknowledgement for doing something that we were supposed to do.

And as we got older, it might have been pretty hard to get rid of this desire to want to receive credit every time we did something good, but it’s something that we had to do. We became like those athletes when they’re playing an away game. Because even though it may be hard to win games when they’re not at home, athletes still find a way to do it. They may not have fans supporting them on the outside, but they do have someone to support them on the inside. They believe in themselves and support themselves as they play the game when they’re away and that cheering from within makes up for the lack of outside support they have. It’s nice for them to have that cheering coming from the outside, but when they don’t have it, they have to learn to cheer on themselves and the same goes for us.

We may want to keep getting credit as we get older, but we know that we’re not always going to get it. Once you’re an adult, you’re expected to do things that you’re supposed to do whether you get credit for them or not. So in some instances, you get credit, which makes us feel good, but in other instances you do not. And most of the time we don’t think twice about not receiving credit in those moments when we don’t receive it, but every now and again there are moments when we really want to get some acknowledgement for a job well done.

Sometimes you have put in so much effort and worked so hard that you just want someone to acknowledge all of the trouble you’ve put in. It’s in these moments that you need to look down deep inside yourself and gather the thanks that you need from within.
Now don’t get me wrong. I love getting compliments or thank-you’s as much as the next person, but this shouldn’t be the thing that drives me to do what I’m supposed to do. I should want to do it for myself. I should want to impress myself. Because when you work to impress yourself, you’ll always have someone there who is cheering you on. And if you always have someone who is cheering you on then you won’t need praise from other people. The credit that you get from yourself will be good enough to get you through whatever it is that you’re setting out to do. And while you’re cheering yourself on, you can set goals for yourself and reach those goals or surpass them.

And as you’re climbing to reach your goals, you should continue to try hard to keep on impressing yourself. Positive thinker, if you ever find yourself in a place in your life where whatever you’re doing does not impress you then chances are that it’s time for you to make a change. Getting comfortable with your life puts you in a position to not grow and to not change for the better and that’s not a good thing. You should always be striving to find ways to make yourself a better version of yourself that you can be happy with.

Positive thinker, in your life, you are the home team and you also need to be your biggest fan. In those moments when you are down and when you get too comfortable with your life you need to cheer yourself on so that you can get back to a place where you’re winning and not just coasting along. And when you are winning, you need to be the one cheering yourself on so that you can continue to win.

Getting credit in life is important. It’s what drives us forward and encourages us to do our best. That’s why you need to be the one person that you can always count on to encourage you to do your best.

Work hard…

Cheer for yourself…

And always fight to win the game!