In sports, the Triple Crown is considered the hardest thing to do, whether you’re talking baseball or horse racing.  To even be in a position to have a chance at the Triple Crown, you have to be very good.  To achieve a Triple Crown, you have to be very good and have the right amount of luck.  To repeatedly win or be in a position for multiple Triple Crowns, you are essentially a First Ballot Hall of Famer.

I’m showing off my sports geekdom here, but I believe that life has its own version of the Triple Crown.  The categories are individual happiness (are you comfortable in your own skin?), personal happiness (have you built the home life you wanted?), and professional happiness (have you built the career you wanted?)  Like in sports, the vast majority of us are somewhere between good and excellent in at least one of these areas.  A few of us are above average in 2 out of 3.  To be clicking on all cylinders nearly every time you look in the mirror, every time you go to work and every time you come home is damn near impossible.

I’m not there yet.  But I do see the opportunity to live out my own Triple Crown scenario.  I bust my ass for the things that I have and the things I want, but I marvel at how much chance plays into it.  There have been certain decisions I’ve made along the way to blow up or throw away happiness in one of the three categories I listed.  I wish I could tell you when I stopped being so self-destructive; in all likelihood it was at the point where I decided I wasn’t going to take for granted the various doors and opportunities that I’ve been provided with.  But that’s just a theory.

There’s no moral to this story but I do have a phrase ringing in my head right now: the company you keep.  Going home is MUCH easier when you know the person/people waiting for you are people who love you; a bad day at work is a lot easier to get through when you get along with your co-workers.  And other people can certainly put a dent in your self-confidence, but at the end of the day I don’t believe others can give you self-confidence. 

Ha!  The gospel song ‘We Fall Down’ (Donnie McClurkin) just came through my IPod.  That’s a nice way to wrap this one up (especially in reference to the point about self-confidence).