At the beginning of the Duke and Houston Final Four Basketball game Saturday night freshman Cooper Flagg of Duke was mentioned as “an unstoppable force.” I was struck by this reference, and thought about how powerful is the designation of “an unstoppable force.” My mind left the basketball game and traveled to you and me. Are we an unstoppable force? What does it even mean to be an unstoppable force? Let’s break the two words down, and discuss them separately.

One description of unstoppable is “can’t be moved by external forces.” I like to think of “can’t be moved” as “can’t be stopped.” We can think of external forces as anything outside of ourselves. If we are truly unstoppable, we will not allow external forces, regardless of what they are, to stop us from doing what we are attempting to do.

What if the opposition we are dealing with comes from within? That is harder to overcome than opposition from external forces. It is hard to overcome the fight within ourselves. To achieve our potential, we have to believe in ourselves. If our voice from within questions our ability to overcome any obstacles, it will be difficult to do so. We can be our own worst critic.

What does the word “force” mean in “unstoppable force?” You may be thinking of the phrase “may the force be with you.” One definition of force is “strength or energy.” Think of substituting the words strength or energy for force in the sentence with unstoppable. The words “unstoppable strength” or “unstoppable energy” are even clearer and more powerful than “unstoppable force.”

What is required for us to have unstoppable strength or unstoppable energy? Where does that power come from? I am not sure that I know. But I know it when I see it.

I see it in Cooper Flagg. Now I want to see it in us.

P..S. Even the most unstoppable are sometimes stopped. The Duke Blue Devils and Cooper Flag were stopped. They lost the game to Houston.