All-Stars of Life
| July 7th, 2008 by Robert | Word Count: 1148 | Reading Time 4:37 | 2,498 views |
As you know from some of my previous articles, I’m a sports fan. Well, sometimes I would classify myself as a sports nut as I’m sure my wife would concur. Next Tuesday, July 15th, is the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. If you are not familiar with how players are chosen for the game, it goes a little something like this: Fans vote in the starting lineup by filling out voter cards or voting online. Most of the pitchers and reserve position players are chosen by the players in each league. The remaining roster is chosen by the manager of the team. As an added bonus, MLB has recently added a one last chance vote for a single “snubbed” player to make the team. Sounds like a pretty simple format to select the “best” players doesn’t it? Most of the time, it does work out that the players who deserve to make the team, get selected. However, each year, there are players left out when they had deserving seasons to warrant an all-star selection.
Almost every major sport that I know of has its own version of an All-Star game. This special game is a reward for performing at levels deserving of recognition by the league, players, and fans. Some players are even fortunate enough to have contracts that kick in bonus money for All-Star selections. However, as mentioned earlier, there are players who are snubbed and left out who are actually more deserving than those chosen ahead of them. It happens every year. There will be a list of 5-10 players available almost immediately after the selections are announced of players who were snubbed. MLB has tried to ease the tension by adding in the one last chance vote for these players. But still, how do players deserving an all-star berth fail to receive the recognition they are deserving of? One word comes to mind… popularity.
With all of this voting and selecting being done by fans, players, and managers, many times, the decisive factor between one player and the other is popularity. Popularity could include lots of things. What has the player done for the game in previous years? How much bad press does the player receive? How do his fellow players feel about him? When a subjective vote is placed, popularity will always enter the decision making. This will in fact leave some players on the outside looking in no matter how good they are performing in their respective sport.
The popularity contest has been with us since we were born. Sports and their all-star games are not the only reflection of how we utilize popularity for recognition and pats on the back. I know you didn’t think this was going to be an entire article devoted to sports did you? We all know better than that! Do you believe that you left the popularity contests behind the day you graduated from high school or college? Did you think that superficial popularity needs are only running rampant in social gatherings or country clubs? Are there popularity contests going on at your job? Do you see them in your everyday life? Popularity contests never end in our lives. Some people work the popularity system to their advantage and others do not. Ever hear the concept of “kissing butt?” They are working the popularity contest to their advantage.
Why does being popular mean so much to everyone? It’s probably easier for an unpopular person to explain what being popular accomplishes. I believe it comes down to the need for acceptance. People can receive “strength” from being accepted. There is an imaginary power associated with being accepted and popular within your group, community, or profession. The position fills your inner desires of being thought of as successful, popular, and accepted. These desires are so strong in some that they will sacrifice their integrity and self respect to accomplish rising to the upper levels of popularity and implied success. “Kissing butt” creates one of those sacrifices. Yes, it may be a valuable tool in the game of popularity, but is it worth the price of your integrity? My answer is no. Some people will answer yes. Popularity and success means that much to them.
MLB has added in the one last chance vote for the snubbed player to receive his due attention. Do we have this luxury in our real lives? No, there are no second chance votes for us in our daily popularity contests. What popularity contests are you involved in at this moment? Are you in one with your co-workers? Are you in one with your supervisor trying to win a promotion? Are you in one with management trying to be noticed and rewarded with a raise or bonus? Maybe you are in one with your family in some manner. What are you sacrificing in these contests? Are you playing the game while keeping true to your integrity and self respect? Yes, it can be done. You can be popular in all things and still keep your integrity and self respect intact. It is much harder to win a popularity contest with such a “handicap” but it can be done and you will feel better by winning the game in this manner.
Are you currently an All-Star in your life? You may not believe that you are in a popularity contest in your life but you are. Every single person, in some form or fashion, is in a popularity contest. The choice you have to make is how you play the game. Are you going to be true to yourself and win by letting your actions speak for your value and be honest and trustworthy in every situation? Or, are you going to play the game and take the easy way out and “trick” people into giving you popularity? The two questions you have just read can be simply read as do you have integrity and self respect or not. People with integrity and self respect are hard to come by these days as the easy way out is the fast track to success and acceptance. More money, bonuses, promotions, etc are available to those who take the fast track. Are you willing to sacrifice the core values of your person to have popularity in the eyes of others?
I hope that you choose to play the popularity game the right way. Become an all-star in your life by being true to yourself. The popularity you receive by winning the game the right way cannot ever be compared to the trivial popularity you receive by lowering yourself to the depths of sacrificing your integrity and self respect. While you and I will not receive a cash bonus by being an all-star in our daily lives, we receive a much greater bonus. Our hearts are full and we know we are living our lives with dignity, integrity, and self respect.
on July 7th, 2008 at 6:51 pm:
You sure hit that nail on the head !!!!!
I have worked in a lot of different locations,and that is one thing that really catches my eye. With a little waiting most of the time these Brown Noses usually get their due. They are promoted not because they will make good supervisors or the best person for the job, but because of the smoke screen that they blow. They can usually get by for a while with their smoke screen with a new supervisor, but a seasoned supervisor can see through this type of person.
A professional will want to be surrounded by people that talks the talk and walks the walk. They want people that do what they say and say what they do. That goes for parenting also. At times it can be real hard to be a consistent and a good parent at the same time. But the outcome in the long run is well worth it.
Wow!! How did I get parenting from a baseball game? What you teach your children at home is carried over into their adult life. Good or Bad. Those sniveling whiners and the suckups that we see every day probably learned this at home to get attention or to get an expensive toy or other things that they didn’t deserve. This is all well and good if you are going to live with your parents and work for your parents all of your life . Not no, but absolutely no !!! Other people have to work with or put up with the spoiled BRATS.
on July 7th, 2008 at 10:08 pm:
More often than not, the popularity contest players who sacrifice their integrity and self respect will be found out and “put in their place.” However, the rest of us have to deal with the fallout before their due time comes. This is a very hard time to work through and stay steadfast in our own ways of staying true to ourselves. We readily see how others are advancing by “cheating” and it can be a fairly obvious carrot dangled in front of us that could very well tempt us to join the crowd.
But, like you have stated, in the end, most people will figure out who the real winners of the popularity contest are. I like the comparison of spoiled brats. Most popularity winners who readily throw their integrity and self respect away are in fact spoiled brats. They have had no use for such values in their lives and easily cast them aside in favor of immediate gratification. Those of us who were given the necessary moral and ethical makeup growing up have a far more difficult time winning something by giving up something so valuable.