It is a fact of physics that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Sir Isaac Newton was addressing the laws of physics, but his theory can also be applied to life experiences. There are wins in life, but also losses.
It is easy to be a winner. We watch the Olympics and applaud the winners of the gold, the silver and the bronze medals as THE athletes in a particular sport, but not winners are not on the top of the awards podium. The opponents of the winners can be winners as well if they do not lose the lessons learned from the winners of their event. In the case of the Olympics, perhaps the lesson is devoting additional hours to future training or replacing a coach or moving to another city where the world’s most renowned coach trains a particular sport.
We win by learning lessons just as a toddler learns how to get peas in his mouth after numerous failures exercising not only his patience but his mother’s picking up the flying peas from her kitchen floor.
The toddler must learn the lesson of getting food to his mouth in an orderly manner. The athlete must learn additional lessons from his or her coach and devote the necessary hours of training to reach the gold medal platform. In both instances, loss is the greatest motivator.
The greatest positive, although it might not seem to be so at the time, is failure, IF the failure results in renewed efforts to succeed based on the lesson learned by failing.
No great inventor succeeded the first time. Thomas Edison said, “I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”
Helen Keller, deaf, mute and blind from birth said, “Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles.”
Winners win because at some point in their life they experienced loss and were motivated by it.
You can sit and suck your thumb and hold a pity party or you can focus on the gold medal awaiting you atop the victor’s stand of life. Which will it be?
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