It feels good when we’ve put in the work and we come out on top. But it’s equally as disappointing when our best is not good enough and we come up short. Winning and losing are both instructive, but we must also keep both in proper perspective.
Winning can certainly mean we’re doing something right – the natural payoff of hard work.
And it then serves as a type of affirmation that we’re on the right track with our thoughts, efforts, and approach to life.
And in the positive, this encourages us to keep doing whatever we’re doing to win.
But wisdom also reminds us that the fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, nor does the strongest warrior always win the battle. Many things in life are decided by chance and simply being in the right place at the right time.
As such, we do well to hold our wins with much humility. Perhaps we’re on the right track. And maybe we just got lucky.
And this holds true for our losses as well.
Sometimes a loss is just a loss and doesn’t indicate that we did anything wrong. Sometimes time and chance just gets the best of us and there’s nothing to learn per se in order to do better next time.
However, a loss might also reveal legitimate shortcomings on our part. We might have costly blind spots or deficiencies in our fundamentals that need addressed.
We shortchange our potential when we don’t take the time to learn from both our wins and our losses. But we also miss the mark when we forget time and chance happens to us all.
Learn – whether you come out on top or not. And remember winning and losing is not always a verdict on your efforts.
Photo by Braden Collum on Unsplash
