I’m a loser. I know, you’re probably thinking, “Oh stop being dramatic.” But let’s face it. I am. I am a loser on more fronts than I can tell you. Honestly, it’s simple math. I have lost more times than I have won. Therefore, I am a loser.
When I played team sports, this concept was easier to deal with. If I scored half of the points for my team and we lost, there wasn’t a whole lot more that I could do. It was a team loss. If anything, I put the blame more on my team for not stepping up beside me to do their part so we as a team can win. But life isn’t always a team sport. Sure, we have team moments. If your kid is annoying you because they are doing the exact thing your spouse does to annoy you, than we can blame it on the spouse. Or, if your kid is amazing and they act like you, your spouse can brag on the team effort. (I’m making myself look really good here.) It’s safe to say, however, that the majority of my life failures are mine. They are my shortcomings. My loses. I can talk my way into blaming someone else. I can spin it into a good light where I look fantastic. But at the end of the day, it’s my loss. And I, my friends, lose a lot. There are two ways to handle defeat. Honestly, I think it is the way I handle my losses that makes people think that I’m not as big of a loser as I actually am. The typical way I see losers in my life, is that they whine, stomp their feet, slum around, and just plain give up. Losers say, I don’t know, so who cares, I’ll just never know. Losers blame others for their loss. Losers say all too often that they will just never win. That seems to be the majority of losers, anyway. And if they aren’t the majority, they’re certainly the loudest. The other way to see your loss is just as a plan gone wrong. You fall, you fail, you pick yourself up and try again. It’s the Edison way of making a lightbulb. It’s the underdog, the Cinderella story. I have a feeling the reason I can get up from my loss and work harder for the next challenge is because I lost when I was younger. Playing rec ball, I was placed on a team with few basketball players. It was usually me against the other team. My parents could have complained. They didn’t. My dad simply told me what to work on and keep going. That translated into high school. The team may lose, but what did I improve upon? I was taught that a person on a team can excel when the team does not. I have been bred for losing. I could probably list ten ways that I am losing in my personal life right now. I won’t. It’s depressing. And let’s face it, losers focus on the loss. With each loss I put on the tally sheet, I don’t stare at it for too long. I might analyze it. Why did I lose? Where did my defeat begin? But only for the purpose of asking: How can I keep this from happening again? Once the analysis is done, I have to put a plan into action. For some losses, it might mean I did it, failed, won’t do it again. For other losses, I may just need to find a better way to accomplish what I want. There is no set answer. The fact is, I just have to move forward in one way or another. Losing sucks. Nobody sets out to lose. Nobody enjoys losing. It is my distaste for losing that keeps me moving forward. One of these days, my losing streak will end. I will win. And that success will be worth it all the more.
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AuthorI have a lot to say about a lot of things. Archives
May 2023
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