Rochelle Pennington writes, ‘One day I stopped at a Dairy Queen restaurant and sat down beside a family celebrating their son’s basketball game. Since the aisles were narrow, I soon felt like part of the party. ‘So, your team won?’ I asked. The little fellow smiled, ‘We lost 24 to 2.’ ‘Well, you must have made the only basket then,’ I said. ‘No, I missed all 8 shots, but 3 of them did hit the rim.’ I was confused. They were celebrating because his team lost and he missed 8 baskets. I had absolutely no clue. After another mouthful of cake, and still grinning from ear to ear, he added, ‘We’re having a party because last week I missed 9 shots, and none of them came anywhere near the rim. Dad says that all my practicing this week really paid off. I’m making progress.’ Wow! With a Dad like that he’ll probably grow up to be a national basketball superstar!’ Where did this boy learn the self-talk of a winner? From a Dad who taught him to focus on his achievements, work on his weak areas, and treat every inch of progress as a major milestone. If you grew up in a family where blame came quickly and credit never came at all, you’ll have to change your belief system and learn a new self-talk, one that builds you up rather than tears you down. Why is this important? Because if you don’t learn to encourage yourself, you’ll never be able to encourage anybody else.