Believe It

Bobbie was the typical mother: She held a full-time job; kept up with the housework, shopping, and laundry; and shuttled her son to soccer practices and games several times a week. Her duties as a soccer mom included providing refreshments to the team every couple of weeks. Needless to say, she was a very busy person.

As the summer grew longer, Bobbie watched the team morale drop as the heat took its toll. Week after week, her sons team lost, and their confidence went downhill. Parents discussed what they might do to help improve the situation, but they could only cheer from the sidelines and hope that their children would somehow miraculously feel better about themselves .

On one of the days that Bobbie was supposed to provide the refreshments, she cut some oranges into bite- sized segments and then reached into her freezer to get some orange juice. Unfortunately, she suddenly realized that shed forgotten to buy any. She only had grape juice and no one had ever brought grape juice as a refreshment! Yet with little time to spare, Bobbie added water to the frozen grape juice, filled the pitchers, loaded the car with her son and his equipment (plus the snacks), and headed for the soccer field. Fortunately, they got there in the nick of time.

Once again, Bobbie and the other parents watched the kids dragging their feet, looking sad and lacking confidence. It was clear that they werent in good spirits, and the score reflected their feelings. Bobbie figured morale would sink even lower when the kids discovered that they didnt have their customary orange juice to drink at halftime.

As soon as the referees whistle blew, the dejected boys and girls rushed over for refreshments . . . and an idea struck Bobbie. She gathered the kids around her, and before she poured them their drinks, she announced, I want you all to know that I didnt bring the usual juice for refreshments todayinstead, I brought you Super Juice! Super Juice is absolutely guaranteed to make you play and feel better. Drink up, and then go out there and win the game!

The kids watched her pour the purple juice into their cups, and it wasnt long before they got into the spirit. Several raised their cups and said, Heres to Super Juice! By the time the game started again, all the kids were laughing, cheering, and feeling confident.

Did they win? You bet they didand from that day forward, the team insisted that all the other mothers bring Super Juice for refreshments every time. What changed? The only thing different with these kids was their level of confidence. They believed that the juice would energize them and make them play better, and, therefore, they were energizedand they won. It wasnt until the soccer team was able to put its confidence in something that it was able to overcome the negativity that it faced.