The next several blogs will focus on winning. What does it mean to win? How do you do it? And what happens if you don’t?
Winning is fun. Losing hurts. Even children know that. I saw the extremes of emotions that are tied to winning (firsthand and one behind the other) a few weekends ago when our two youngest children played back-to-back school basketball games. When our 10-year-old son’s team won—and secured second place in the standings—the joy and excitement and sense of accomplishment were amazing to witness. These kids were ecstatic! Winning was fun. No doubt about it.
In the next game, we got to see the exact opposite of this when our 8-year-old daughter and her team lost to their “arch rival” St. Francis. Oh, those children were sad and disappointed. Looking at tears of sorrow streaming down their long faces, it was obvious that losing hurts—a lot.
This high-low situation reminded me of something Joe Namath once said: “When you win, nothing hurts.” I also thought of NBA legend Larry Bird who summed up the pain of losing like this: “I hate to lose more than I like to win.”
So if winning is so great and losing is so awful, why do so many people not strive to be their best and attempt to win every time?
I know, of course, that you can’t win every time all the time, but shouldn’t you at least try? We all know people who just “phone it in.” Sometimes it seems these folks are defeated before they even give winning a try.
Don’t be that kind of person! In the coming weeks, I’ll talk about how to position yourself to win more often. Trust me, it will be fun.
What is your most recent important win? What about a recent loss? What did you learn from that?