To be honest, there will be times when life knocks us down – times when we face being defeated.
To the same respect, life also has the ability to lift us up – times when we overcome adversity and ‘win’.
In both wins and losses, there are learning opportunities, and these experiences have the ability to contribute to shaping us into the person we desire to be.
Have you learned something long term, or did you merely remember something for the short term? On the other hand, what if you perform poorly on the exam – what if the grade you received is not what you were expecting or hoping? What if you realized that the poor performance could be attributed to the fact that you waited until the morning of the exam, and you merely skimmed your notes a few times through before taking the test? I think the learning lesson here is that if you truly have a desire to be successful, then you will change something about your habits in order to help make you successful.
My point is that if we always win at what we do, then we never understand the areas of our life in which we need to grow.
I’m sure it’s possible to learn from our victories when we learn from our short-comings, we increase our awareness of how to perform something differently in the future in order to receive a different result than we previously did.
Did you try cooking a new recipe and it turned out poorly? Did you learn what you could do better the next time? 2.
Did you struggle getting through a sales call? Did it make you think about how to re-frame your questions in order to get the information you were seeking? 3.
Did you attempt a fitness training program, but cut it short after only a few weeks? Did it make you think about how much time and effort would be needed to try again? 4.
Did you cause hurt in a relationship because of your words? Did it cause you to think how you could act differently with people in the future? The list could continue with several other examples, but the point is that these moments of feeling defeated – feeling like you let yourself or someone else down – are the perfect opportunities to try something new with the intentions of receiving a better result.
What grabbed my attention was the point when Ronda said, “Maybe winning all the time isn’t what’s best for everybody.” Ronda would continue on by saying that even in the face of defeat, she needed to ‘pick herself up off of the mat’.
I believe the point being made is that we don’t always have to win at everything we do.
At the end of the day, do you think it would be a great learning experience to see and know how it feels on the other end? You might disagree, and I will admit that winning feels great.
When I can reflect on my life and the times when I have grown the most it was in the times that I ‘lost’ – moments when I was down and out – defeated if you will.
As I was trying to think of an example to demonstrate this argument, I came across the following quote: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And, that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan For those of you who don’t know who Michael Jordan is, he is arguably the greatest professional basketball player of all time.
In other words, how many shots did Michael Jordan make, games did he win, and game winning shots did he make.
Shots made – More than 24,000 – Games won – More than 1,000 – Game-winning Shots – 25, with one of the highest game-winning shot percentages in professional basketball history In looking at these statistics, and keeping the previous quote in mind, I find validity in that it was the moments of defeat that helped Michael to develop into a better player, and to grow into a threat against opposing teams.
If you knew that you would succeed 24,000 times, but only after you failed 9,000, then would you think differently about always wanting to win? Would you be okay with knowing that no one likes to be defeated, but understanding that through defeat an individual is able to grow? As much as I enjoy to win, I find myself thinking back on all the times that I didn’t meet the expectation – that I wasn’t ‘successful’.
As bad as it may have felt at the time, t helped me become the person that I am today, ready and willing to see obstacles as learning blocks to hone a skill and grow as a person.
Remember the principles it taught you, and use those ideas as guidelines for how to increase your chances of success, and ultimately have more ‘wins’.
Find Athletics in your local area
