How to always land up in First Place
Nothing beats the feeling of winning something. The feeling of crossing that finish line first or lifting that team trophy is the one thing that assures that your hard work paid off. But as sweet as victory sounds, it’s not something one comes across often. That’s why in every attempt we make at winning something, we must keep in mind that sometimes it is important to lose too. It does sound odd (doesn’t it), but there are some things in life you only learn when you don’t have a gold medal.
The first thing that you must keep in mind when you don’t succeed is that this isn’t the end. It may also feel like the next opportunity you’ll get is miles away. But you have to remember that you can never get too good at something – there will always be something you could have done better. When you lose, it's not a failure on your part but rather a reminder that you have the potential to do better. If we all lead perfect lives where we overcame all challenges with success, then we’d just be in a monotonous time loop – learning nothing new. The only way we can truly grow is if we learn from these mistakes and improve.
Losing seems unfair - I know. But don’t blame the winner, because this might be the first time they haven’t lost. You should take inspiration from the fact that the winner worked harder than you (and if they can do it, you can too). Losing gives us that drive to constantly work harder. At the end of the day, we are all human, and the only thing that differentiates us is the amounts of effort we put in to achieve our goals. No matter how many times you lose in life, if you don’t give up, you will cross the finish line victorious sooner or later.
When we look at professional athletes compete - they make winning look easy. What we don’t see are the years and years of hard work, dedication, and failure behind the scenes. The more successful a person is, the more setbacks they have probably faced in their life. Success doesn’t come to you easily and you must learn to achieve it - you can only learn when you lose. With every failure, you should get double the amount of confidence, because now you know exactly where you went wrong.
In every successful individual, you will notice one common trait – a constant driving force. There is nothing different between them and you. If they can do it, there should be nothing stopping you from doing it too. In our daily lives, it is natural for us to come across failure. What matters is how we deal with it. If we let it affect our minds, we will never be able to overcome it. But if we analyze it and see what caused the failure, then you’ll be seeing yourself with that gold medal soon.
Winning can often take time, but you must trust yourself and trust the process as well. Whether you win or lose, you really just win. When you win you simply win, but when you lose, you learn, you improve, and you become a better and stronger human being (and I call that a way bigger victory). Failure is not the opposite of success, but a part of it.