Please enjoy this excerpt from my new book:
You, Beautiful: Getting gorgeous from the inside out.
Coming soon!
No time to read? Listen here!
Everyone loves the underdog. We want to root for the scrappy fighter, not the person who’s favored to win, the one with advantages like money or family ties. The underdog is sincere, hardworking, gritty, and determined. They get knocked down and come back up again, and again.
Beautiful someone, in some ways, the underdog represents the best in us: the part that believes deeply in the goal. The one who doesn’t feel entitled to victory but willing to work incredibly hard at it. The one who gets knocked down and refuses to be bitter or resentful, and instead comes back up swinging for the fences.
A special kind of beautiful
These qualities are incredibly appealing to us. We’re proud of them. And you know what else? No matter what they look like on the outside, how bloodied and battle worn, to us the underdog is a special kind of beautiful.
And so are we — every time we get back up again and refuse to become victims. Because here’s the truth: we’re all victims. We are all underdogs. We’ve all suffered at the hands and mouths of other people. We’ve all gotten bad breaks. Had bad days. Car trouble. Money trouble. Teenager trouble. Unsupportive family members. Friends who are great until we’re in trouble and we actually need them.
Related: Why Emotional Resilience Is a Trait You Can Develop
Victimhood is a hard stop
We all pay high prices for gas and groceries. Pay taxes and watch as our money is spent too often irresponsibly.
We’ve worked for bad managers, been fired, then scooped French fries or served coffee to make ends meet.
In every tough situation, through every frustration and loss, we have a choice: stay in the game or sit back and be a victim.
And that choice is everything. Everything.
Because victimhood is a hard stop. There’s nowhere to go from there. Victims literally give away their power to make a difference for themselves and the people they love and care about. They become tense. Angry. Helpless. Hopeless. Sad. Frustrated. Spiritually unattractive.
Oh no. No.
Nope.
Not us.
Get back up again
We make the other choice: to get back up, dust ourselves off, and start again, smarter and stronger than last time. To believe that the best is yet to come. And every time we refuse to become bitter and cynical, we get a glow up.
Yes, that happened. And so did that, and that, and yeah, that too. But we got back up again. And again. And we grew more beautiful every time. Stronger, more resilient. Definitely smarter. More empathetic toward other people going through the same thing. Calmer next time the same thing happens to us. We’ll get through this; we’ve done it before. It’s not the end of the world.
And our refusal to become pessimistic keeps us open to possibilities. Welcoming to new people. Inviting to fresh ideas and ways of doing things.
We become more beautiful every time we stay and reach and strive. Hope shows on our faces, in our words and actions. Belief in our own ability to make something better, not just for ourselves but for the people we love and care about, gives us energy and strength to stay the course.