Sore Losers (Blowing It Scenario #137).

We All Love To Win, And For Most Of Us That Comes With A Heavy Disdain For Losing. But There Is An Appropriate Way To Win, As Well As An Appropriate Way To Lose.

As the saying goes; show me someone who loves to lose and I’ll show you a loser. That can tend to be an over-generalization of tough pill to swallow. No one enjoys losing but how we handle it is the true mark of a winner or loser. This is not something that is taught very often. Be gratuitous both in victory and in defeat.

For most of my life I thought losing was a disgraceful representation of the fact that I did not do my best in that particuar endeavour. Something to incessantly ruminate over and to continuously berate one’s self as well as sometimes that of your opposition.  It’s a loser pity party to blame those around you or beat yourself up over the loss. You do have to take full accountability of your actions and the loss. But beating yourself up over it and not looking for ways to improve is a true loss.

Losing is simply just a lesson on ways to improve. It does not mean you didn’t try your hardest or do the best you could possibly do. Sometimes you are just outplayed by your opponent and that is a good thing. It means you still have a lot of room to grow, room to improve. It doesn’t always come down to not doing your best, your best may not be good enough in that moment. And in that moment thank your competitor for giving you a gift, the gift of discovery. You now have a new blueprint on finding ways to improve. Maybe you didn’t put in the amount of time and practice you competition did. Maybe you don’t communicate with your team or you’re just not as in sync as your opponents were. There are always ways to improve. Thank your competition in the midst of defeat for showing you those new methods.

Recently at a “Madden” gaming tournament in Jacksonville Florida a lone gun man who had earlier been eliminated from the tournament. Took losing to the ultimate extremes by channeling his aggression for both the loss and I’m sure for life in general. In to attacking and killing fellow players along with himself.  This is truly a disgusting display on every level, not just of how not to lose but how not to live life. Our hearts go out to the victims of this tragedy. It’s a lesson that we can all do more to improve. We all lose when tragedies like this strike. Now that we have lost the question remains how will we use this loss to be better in the future?