It's not personal,..really!

I caught myself contemplating the upcoming wrestling season today.  I have been asked to help with the local high school team this year and have since been excited about the prospect.  My thoughts led me to the great pressure that seems to rest on and confound many wrestlers in their striving for success. 
When I was younger, I was no exception.  Like so many of them, I could be described as a "head case" to a certain degree.  At a 5A high school, I noticed how my social importance waxed and waned with the coming and going of the wrestling season.  I was seen as somebody important by my peers because I was successful at wrestling.  I wanted to be somebody in people's eyes, and during the wrestling season I was.  Naturally, people want to be associated with "winners" and so there was a significant difference in my social life during those few months when I was ironically most busy and unavailable.
Wrestling was not a popular enough sport to assure continuing importance, but rather a short while after the state tournament I would descend back into the ranks of everyone else.
The problem with this is that each young man that feels this way, not only faces an opponent each match, but also seems to be wrestling the world for his place in it - his own worth and the opinions of his peers.  Every one will eventually lose this type of match - whether to defeat on the mat (aided no doubt by the incredible pressure he feels), or to disillusionment with the shallow nature of the importance he has won with his victories.  I was no exception.
If a young man could be secure enough about who he is and who he is becoming independent of the outcome of his matches I believe he would have a much better chance at success.  He needs solid principles of living to anchor himself to in order to avoid being thrown to the waves of both success and opinion.