LOSE LIKE A WINNER
Losing stinks, doesn’t it? It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re working to win, nobody likes to lose. But if you’re serious about competing at a high level, losing will be a part of your experience. It is for everyone. And believe it or not, for the champion athlete – even as bad as it hurts – losing is actually an important part of learning what it takes to win. There’s no controlling that at some point, each of us will have to deal with the pain of a difficult or unexpected loss, but we do have some control over how exactly it is that we lose, and what it means for us moving forward. Champions recognize that there are many ways to lose.
Losing itself, of course, is a binary outcome. It’s black and white. Either it happened or it didn’t. But how you lose isn’t binary. There’s actually a lot of gray area involved there, and it’s important to understand the different ways there are to lose, especially if you’re striving to be your best. Some of those ways you can be proud of, and some of them you’ll regret.
There are many ways to lose, some you can be proud of and some you'll regret.
Sometimes you play your best, do everything right, and still come up short. You compete like a champion from beginning to end. You battle hard and give your all. You face your challenges head on and empty your tank. Now don't get me wrong, for a competitor, losing this way isn't any less fun. You'll probably be disappointed or frustrated dealing with the reality that your best just wasn’t good enough, but this is losing that – as you move forward and look back – at least you can be proud of. You lost, yes, but you lost like a winner. By doing so, you don’t have to deal with all the coulda’s, woulda’s, and shoulda’s that can cloud the memory of a loss. If you’ve gotta lose – and we all do, at some point – this is the worthy way to do it.
The alternative is that you lose like a loser. Here you allow yourself to settle for less than your best. Your heart isn’t in it. You give up too early or too easily. You're soft or scared or selfish. You make excuses. You play the victim. As disappointing or frustrating as it might be to realize your best wasn’t good enough, it pales in comparison to this – to accepting that you’ll never know if your best was good enough…because you didn’t give your best. This is not the kind of losing you can be proud of. This is losing you’ll regret. It becomes a memory clouded with those coulda’s, woulda’s, and shoulda’s. If you’ve gotta lose – and we all do, at some point – this is not the way to do it.
I hope, wherever it is you’re working to win today, you’ll make the commitment to win and lose like a champion. Go all in and give your very best. By doing so, of course, you give yourself the best chance to achieve the winning outcome you're after. But even if it’s not enough, you’ll know you left it all on the table. You won’t have to look back and wonder what might’ve been. Sure, it still stings, but you’re strong enough to handle it, learn from it, and use it to become more worthy of winning next time. I know you don’t want to lose, but if it happens – when it happens – make sure you’re losing like a winner. That’s a decision you won’t regret.