I know exactly what you're thinking when you read the title, "Oh great, another person saying, it's OK to lose, every one is equal, and everyone gets an award just for trying."

You couldn't be more wrong.

What I'm focusing on is the fact that sometimes losing is actually good for you. (Yes, you read that right.)

In high school, I played football. No, I'm not writing this to rehash my "glory days," I'm writing this because I learned a lot from those years of playing. I played for a little tiny school named East Beauregard. We had a very limited number of players and this caused us to, well, at a loss for better words, stink. Our records were sub par every year and we never, in our wildest dreams, made it to the playoffs. I learned more from winning six games in four years than if we would've won four state championships.

Now I know you think I'm absolutely insane, right? Wrong. Because of being in those situations where we had to battle with every last inch of our being to be in those games, we learned discipline, perseverance, willpower, and the desire to never give up. Losing those games taught us how to struggle. That is one of the most important lessons in life.

When you lose, you learn how to look back and see what you did wrong. You learn that it's okay to not have everything together. It's OK to fail! The most important thing you must learn from that is... You can't keep failing. When you mess up, you learn from those things. You assess and you move on. Dwelling on the past leaves you there, in the past!

Let's listen in to what a few people have to say about failure...

"I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” - Thomas Edison

"It is fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” - Bill Gates

“I’ve missed more than 9000 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

And that's just three of the thousands upon thousands of other quotes you can find if you look them up. (Go on, do it. Fantastic motivation is awaiting.) What I'm trying to say in the ramblings of all of this is that failure is the foundation of what can become of a successful life. Which comes back to how losing is good, this is a simple way to learn a strong lesson early on in life. Some people never learn this and it drives them crazy to ever mess up. Every little thing must be perfect and, because of this, they're never happy because of always trying to be perfect. That's no way to live. Be courageous, take chances, screw things up. Live life to its fullest, because you only have one. Make it your own and don't worry about it being perfect.