V. We Walk Like Champions

'We walk like champions' was one of our core values at Messiah. It's about action rooted in identity. It's about doing what you ought to do because of who you are (or who you want to be) regardless of how you feel -- or the result or where you finish in the standings or some other set of circumstances outside of your control. We are champions therefore we act like champions even when we don't feel like champions. Here are related excerpts from Mere Christianity, Resilience and Champions: The Making of Olympic Swimmers:

1. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
In a chapter called "Let's Pretend," C.S. Lewis writes:

The story is about someone who had to wear a mask; a mask which made him look much nicer than he really was. He had to wear it for years. And when he took it off he found his own face had grown to fit it. He was now really beautiful. What had begun as disguise had become a reality. Even on the human level, you know, there are two kinds of pretending. There is a bad kind, where the pretense is there instead of the real thing; as when a man pretends he is going to help you instead of really helping you. But there is also a good kind, where the pretense leads up to the real thing. When you are not feeling particularly friendly but know you ought to be, the best thing you can do, very often, is to put on a friendly manner and behave as if you were a nicer person than you actually are. And in a few minutes, as we have all noticed, you will be really feeling friendlier than you were. Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already.

2. Resilience by Eric Greitens
Resilience is a collection of letters written by former Navy Seal Eric Greitens to another former Seal, Zach Walker, plagued by depression, alcoholism and debilitating lack of purpose. In the chapter on "Identity," Greitens asks Walker to think about the following three things in relationship to one another: feelings, action and identity. Greitens writes:

We tend to assume, without really thinking about it, that everything starts with our feelings, that our feelings are in control. Feelings lead to action. Action shapes our identity.

He then challenges Walker to think about feelings, action and identity in the opposite direction (identity, action, feelings):

You begin by asking, 'Who am I going to be?' You decided to be courageous again. So what's next? Act that way. Act with courage. And here comes the part that's so simple it's easy to miss: the way you act will shape the way you feel. You act with courage and immediately your fears start to shrink and you begin to grow. If you want to feel differently, act differently.

3. Champions: The Making of Olympic Swimmers by Daniel Chambliss
Chambliss wrote Champions after observing the practice habits of Olympic swimmers ahead of the 1988 Olympic Games. He writes:

They become champions by doing what needs to be done, by doing everything right, by concentrating on all the silly little details that others overlook. What makes them champions is the knowledge -- and the action following from that knowledge -- that champions are only real people, not gods, and all that it takes to be a champion is to do what champions do.