Losing: that thing that nobody wants to experience, but that everyone experiences a lot throughout a lifetime.
As children, most people are taught to do everything in their willpower to win. Whether it is in sports, academic competitions, or otherwise people are taught to pursue winning. Nobody grows up dreaming to finish in second place. Nobody plans on falling just short of the goal. Winning is a part of who we are and who we hope to be from a very early age. But what if losing isn’t so bad? What if losing is actually beneficial? What if losing is worth it?
I must admit that throughout my lifetime I have become obsessed with winning. Quite simply, the thought of losing makes me sick. Every action I take is in preparation to win at something. As you might have guessed, I don’t always win at whatever it is I am doing. This reality of losing used to make me angry, upset, and disappointed in my shortcomings. However, recently I have a new view on the idea of losing. Some of the greatest things in life come from losing: a place of disappointment and a place of feeling inadequate. It has been noted that Thomas Edison had one thousand unsuccessful attempts at making the light bulb before he finally created a “winning” light bulb. Were the first one thousand attempts worthless or did he learn something with each failed attempt? I may never know for certain, but I believe that each unsuccessful attempt was a learning opportunity and pushed him closer to winning.
Similar to Edison, I think the same is true in your life and my life. Each time we try our hand at winning and come up short it is not a lost cause or wasted effort, but rather an opportunity to learn and push us closer to winning. At some point in your life, maybe multiple times, you will have an opportunity to take a chance at winning. This chance will come in many forms: relationships, job opportunities, athletic competition, etc. There will be times that you take a chance on a relationship and it backfires, times that you take a chance on a job and hate it, times that you train for months and lose the competition. What I want to suggest to you is that it is always worth losing! Sure, there will be those times when you come up short and seem like you’ve failed. But those times will serve as an opportunity to learn and get one step closer to winning. So face it, you are going to lose sometimes. And that’s okay because it will put you one step closer to the winning place that you so heavily desire to be. Take a chance in your career, your competitions, and your relationships. It’s always worth losing!
