There’s something to say for sheer determination.

Determination to stay in the game. Determination to play at the top of one’s game.

How close to being eliminated has Anoop Desai come over the last several weeks? He didn’t get the votes to make the top 9 chosen by the viewers. He was the last wild card contestant announced and surprise 13th overall. His first performance was panned by the judges, and the producers chose to him to stand with Jorge as the next most likely to be voted off.

Enough to shake the confidence of the best of us. Not Anoop.

He worked even harder. His energy and determination levels grew. He pulled together everything he had to violate one of the judges’ most sacred rules, “Don’t take on a haloed classic.” And he pulled it off to their astonished admiration.

There’s something to say for sticking with something we love. Something we want. Something we’ve worked hard for. That others are doing better, getting more attention, experiencing more success cannot be the criteria by which we measure our own success.

Until Anoop is voted off the show, he is very much still on the show and in the running… no matter what the odds… no matter how well the other contestants are singing… no matters what the pundits think. (Who would have believed Taylor Hicks had a chance?)

Going from zero to hero involves not giving up on yourself. Are you pulling out of the game when you need to be adjusting your strategy and pushing harder? Are you disqualifying yourself by letting discouragement, long odds, or criticism from the sidelines drag you down?

You know you’re good. You know you have a lot to offer.

What do you do to up your game, bolster your confidence, or push from a different direction? What do you need to go from zero to hero?

On your side,

- Karl

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 9:03 am and is filed under American Idol Savvy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.