The most important message: You have to believe in You

Another snow day here in the Philadelphia region, but this time I was prepared. Following school Wednesday, we raced over to the library to collect a few books, movies and a wii game (that’s right! Our library has wii games for $3 for a week.)

The kids usually grab a trendy movie that I really don’t want to see, something like Super Mario Brothers or Bakugan. But every now and then I convince them to borrow a movie that I’d like to see. This time it was Angels in the Outfield.

If you don’t recall the movie, its about a failing California Angels professional baseball team that’s getting a little help from some foster kids and some real angels. With big-name stars like Danny Glover, Tony Danza, Christopher Lloyd, Matthew McConaughey (!), and Dermot Mulroney (I know, I had no recollection of all these stars in the film, either),  its a very fun family* movie.

So, my point. The point of the movie is really that you need to believe in yourself. The kids didn’t quite get that. Which lead to a great discussion of believing in yourself: that others put value in you, but for you to get something done, you have to believe that you can.

We went on to discuss how this affects us in real life. Even Middle, age four, was able to tell us times when he needs to remember to believe in him. Which is huge for him.

The discussion was focused on the kids and times when it helps to believe in themselves, it made me pause to think about adult lives, and how important it is to believe in yourself.

Parents, this is huge. For a lot of us, we loose something of ourselves when we become parents. We’re nervous, we start self doubting because we know that nothing is more important than the health and safety of our children. Our confidence takes a beating with every owie and each ear infection. Each time our child fails, we wonder if its something we’ve done. (And, don’t forget, failure is a great teacher). Our confidence is spoiled. And, often, we loose the belief that we can do it.

For those of us that stay home, this affects us later, as well. We’ve doubted ourselves so often that we begin to loose our confidence professionally, even socially. So that when its time to go back to work we’re struggling to remember how to do an interview or how to present ourselves. And how, we fear, will we convince the employer that we can do this job, when raising a child left us with so many questions? So much uncertainty?

The lesson in Angels in the Outfield is universal. You have to believe in you: first and foremost. You have to have that confidence in yourself to model to your children. You have to have it to get anywhere in life. You have to have it to succeed.

Sometimes it takes an old movie to remember that, while there may be angels among us, even they can’t make things happen without you being there first.

*Note that there are a few A-word mentions, but they’re stopped about half-way through the movie when Roger, the boy, explains that Angels don’t like curse words and perhaps they’d help out more if the coach cleaned up his mouth.

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About Julie Meyers Pron

Julie Meyers Pron has written 815 post in this blog.

mom of 3 and wife, Julie is a former elementary school teacher and a Public Relations manager. She is the owner/editor of Just Precious, founding partner of Just Centsible, and a team member of Splash Creative Media. Julie is a PTOer, volunteer, elementary educator and that's just the beginning of the list!

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Tagged as: angels in the outfield, confidence