Mentions of the song “Get Low, Fly High” recur throughout the novel. As a warm-up song before soccer games, it’s a source of motivation, one part of the extensive regimen that helps Liz and Cricket meet the physical and psychological demands of high-level athletic performance. The novel’s exploration of What the Pursuit of Greatness Requires emphasizes motivation as a prominent part of sports culture and something that can be achieved and maximized through effort and individualized strategies, such as high-energy music.

The song also has important meaning for familial identity and relationships. Mia and Cricket adopt their mother’s favorite song and personal anthem and incorporate it into their own lives in a demonstration of generational connection that reinforces The Profound Bond Between Mothers, Daughters, and Sisters. During Mia and Cricket’s polar plunge on the 10th anniversary of Liz’s death, Mia sings the song as “Get Lowe” (338), implying the song’s role as a representation of the Lowe family identity and an expression of belief in their ability to achieve great things.

Resetting actions in the narrative include the hairband snap, the New Year’s party and polar plunge, and Cricket’s habitual three claps and sock adjustment after making a mistake on the soccer field. They are actions meant to arrest emotionally maladaptive reactions and regain psychological control to refocus and move forward. They embody a “mind over matter” mentality that promotes mental fortitude as a crucial part of perseverance. An ability to overcome adversity is central to What the Pursuit of Greatness Requires.

Resetting actions are proactive techniques that put the Lowe women in control of how they react to the world, even as they accept things outside of their control. For example, Liz can’t control how Q behaves, but she realizes her reaction—wallowing in despair—is hurting Mia. She initiates the mid-September New Year’s celebration and polar plunge as a way to symbolize a new start and motivate herself to move forward. Later, Mia’s kidney transplant surgery becomes a symbolic reset. It allows her and Cricket to leave their 10-month fight and Cricket’s guilt and shame in the past and to refocus on what’s really important: family and the pursuit of their dreams.