My Uncle Manuel was born in a small town in Spain. He has lived and worked all over the world, but he is Spanish to his bones. If you visit, he will treat you with generosity and hospitality and charm. He will also regale you for hours with stories of bullfights, or more correctly, La Corrida. He will likely put in a VHS of some of his favorites and let you see the greatness of La Corrida in ways that words cannot do justice.

"If you want to eat the meat, you have to kill the bull."

This is one of my favorite Uncle Manuel-isms. He says it as a way to deflect criticism of La Corrida. And he has a point. If you eat meat, particularly the kind of mass-produced stuff that most of us do, you cannot criticize bullfighting. You just can't.

But over time the saying has taken on a different meaning for me. To me it now means if you want something you have to work for it. If you enjoy something you have to pay for it. Nothing of value comes easily.

Proof of that was given by the Spanish team who, despite starting poorly, just kept working and working until they won the World Cup. They did it mostly the same way they usually do - by working together, playing the game their own beautiful way despite constant efforts by their opponents and remaining patient until the right moment came along. And when it did come, it was magnificent.

Like most people I know, we have had a frustrating couple of years. Just when we get our act together things change. We gain our confidence and something knocks us down, until we find ourselves living a life we didn't choose, wondering... what now?

I bet the Spanish National Team felt the same way after their opening round loss to Switzerland. But instead of feeling sorry for themselves (Team France, anyone?) they played the next game and won. Then they repeated, again and again, getting better each time. And when the final came and the Dutch team gave them a real bruising, they just kept at it, until the cup was theirs.

So now I resolve to adopt the Spanish National Team approach for my life: play the game I know, play it beautifully, and be patient. When the time comes, I will be ready. I will kill the bull.