Last update: 24 March, 2016
They say that losing by learning means not losing at all, which is absolutely true. You are only defeated if you want it: if you don't want to, you can take advantage of the failure to learn something new on you, on what you lack or on what you exceed, to achieve success.
Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn. There is not a single human being on earth who has passed through the world without knowing defeat. In fact, most of the greatest achievements are at the top of stairs whose steps are made up of mistakes, until one comes to blatant triumph. Don't you agree that the greatest discoveries and inventions in the history of mankind have been achieved in this way?
"Defeat has a dignity that victory does not know".
(Jorge Luis Borges)
What makes the taste of success so sweet is the difficulty it implies. Nobody tastes success achieved without struggling. One can rejoice in the fortune he has enjoyed, but certainly not be proud of his triumph, because it is such only if talent is combined with effort.
Sometimes you win
Carlos Serrano is a sportsman who holds the Paralympic swimming world record. He shared a picture of him on social networks, an image in which he appears with a sign that says "In training you win medals, in competitions you collect".
The sentence contains a great truth. What guarantees the triumph is the work on oneself, the preparation, the effort done in the development of a process in which, little by little, one's limits are broken.
Victory is not reserved for those who have more skills than others, but for those who use them best. It is a fruit that can only be tasted by those who are capable of setting a goal for themselves, of fighting tirelessly and of constantly working on their mistakes and shortcomings, in order to be worthy of triumph.
The mentality of successful people is characterized by the fact that effort and hard work occupy a central space. Those who know how to win also know that nothing is given away: every goal achieved is a product of perseverance.
First, one wins in the struggle with oneself when defining goals, to have confidence in one's abilities, to make a decision that is resistant enough and firm against any adverse eventuality and vicissitude. When this has been done, all that remains is to “collect the medals”, as Carlos Serrano says.
There is no recipe for success, however it is possible to define the characteristics of a winner. The first of all is faith in one's work. Thereafter, there is a great ability to make healthy self-criticism, that is, to objectively evaluate mistakes and correct moves.
Sometimes you learn
In ancient Greece there was a real cult of competition, especially in the sports field. In those days, events of this kind had a very different value than they do today. Plato, in "La Repubblica", argued that young people should be educated with two basic pillars: gymnastics and music.
By gymnastics, he meant the education of the body, and by music, the education of the soul. For the Greeks, the idea of ​​being able to triumph in a sporting competition was inconceivable if one did not also possess great values. as a human being.
What made an athlete deserving was his ability to "be better" than the average. His valor and his effort were exalted. The competitions took the name of “Agón”, which means contention, challenge; it is precisely from there that the term "agony" derives, which, in our times, indicates a suffering that separates life from death.
When there is a competition, there are only winners and losers. And competition is healthy only when it is directed to those parts of oneself that need to be cleaned up, improved, healed; this is the condition for success.
Defeat is always relative, since it depends on the feelings, emotions and attitude of the one who is unable to reach a goal at a given moment. It would be a real defeat, in the strict sense of the term, if what ensued were a total demolition.
If instead, the impossibility of reaching a goal turns into a source of reflection and learning, we cannot speak of defeat. This lesson lies in evaluating the reasons why it was not possible to achieve success and even a reflection on the goal itself. Sometimes, defeat is a sign that we are on the wrong path, perhaps because we have set ourselves a purpose that is not for us.
In reality, for those with a triumphant mentality, the word "defeat" does not exist. It can be said that there are situations in which you get what you were looking for and there are others in which you have the opportunity to learn something that you did not know before.
