Losers?

If at first you don't succeed, find out if the loser gets anything. ~Bill Lyon

Losers? I haven't watched the Olympics, because we've been in a car accident, my wife is still very disabled from it, and she prefers TVland reruns of Andy Griffith show, Cosby, and I Love Lucy. I do watch some news and so I see clips of what is going on in China. It makes me think about winners and losers.

It seems that it is a need within most beings (perhaps all beings) that we have winners and losers. Whatever is done, we want to know who does it the best. It may be running, or eating hot dogs but we want to stage a competition and find out who is better at it. Is it any wonder that so many of us walk around feeling like losers?

This need for competition is also connected to our faith and love of capitalism.

Business is a good game-- lots of competition and a minimum of rules. You keep score with money. ~Nolan Bushnell

When I check my bank account I hear a voice whisper, "Looooooozer."

But using business and money to determine success has its draw backs, for most of us.

In accordance with our principles of free enterprise and healthy competition, I'm going to ask you two to fight to the death for it. ~Monty Python

Do we really want to sacrifice our life for success on a job?

My problem is that I have been programed to be a loser. As a child I was told that I was "stupid, a knot head, a dummy," that I "can't do anything right." As I grew I tended to confirm those negatives by feeling so much the dim bulb that I never had a bright idea, ever.

When you think about it, we are given negative assessments of ourselves every day of our life. I may have been 'dis-ed" 300,000 times before I was 18 years old, and maybe you were lucky enough to be put down only 100,000 times before you were 18 years old, but most of us get negative messages most of the time.

When you think about winners and losers it is clear that there is and can only be ONE winner, which makes everyone else losers.

But wait, that can't be right. Back to the Olympics. Most of the people there are not winners OR losers. Most of the TV audience is not made up of winners or losers. We are mostly observers. We don't compete. We didn't train. We are not trying to be winners or losers. You can't be a loser if you are not trying to be a winner, can you? Of course Michael Phelps swims faster than me. I don't swim. I don't even exercise. I use my body to move my head from room to room. I am not in competition with Michael Phelps.

It doesn't matter if you win or lose in the big, scary jungle of the real world. Winners and losers. . .Enemies and allies . . . We don't live in a comic book! This is the real deal. ~ Takayuki Ikkaku, Arisa Hosaka and Toshihiro Kawabata

By my focusing on winning and losing I actually do lose something, I lose my focus on the joy of life. Life is short, and in my opinion, I get only this one chance to live. Life is a spark separating two vast and eternal darkness-es. Why not enjoy it while I have it?



Every moment of your life is worth living. Every moment is filled with the extraordinary, if only you will allow yourself to be present for it. ~ Ihnen and Flynn



Winning (or being a loser) tells me something important: When I am concerned with being a loser, or with my failure to be the winner, what I am doing is placing the opinion of others above my opinions about myself.



By not taking responsibility for our own thoughts, we leave our minds open to the whims of others. ~Helmstetter