Tuesday, April 5, 2016

What prepares you the most for living? Winning or losing?

Is winning really everything in life? What happens to the majority of society that doesn’t win? Last night my local Baseball Team bombed their opening game. What’s difficult is that the management just spent 200 million dollars on this young pitcher who is suppose to be a WINNER. Yet, the reality is that this is just one game out of over 160 games that make the season. The question still looms whether this Zack Grienke’s thud for the opener is the kiss of death or a learning opportunity?

The final game in March Madness saw the last 4.7 seconds make the ultimate difference between the number #1 team and the 2nd best team.  The Nova play by Villanova saw Jenkins plant himself behind the 3 point line and hit the big one for his time to go BANG and see the national championship become REAL! Does this equate into all the Villanova team ending up in the NBA and becoming millionaires?

One of my childhood heroes was Andy Griffith who had such simple wisdom and insight as the sheriff of this small town called Mayberry.  I can picture little Opie listening to his dad as he shares his life philosophy about winning and losing; “It don’t take courage to be a winner. It does take courage to be a good loser. Now, you wanna be a good loser, you’ll be proud of your friends that did win, and you’ll congratulate ‘em for it!” What a profound statement! Clearly it took a lot of practice over the year for the teams that made it to the final four to have the opportunity to be number #1. Much like this Zack Grienke must have done something to warrant the D-Backs to give him everything with the hope of having a winning season.

I truly believe that becoming a gracious loser who is able to see the bigger picture is one of the most important life lessons to keep learning! I’m around too many that make winning so important that when their son loses, regardless of being 5 or 15, that the dad spends more time berating his son then loving him whether he has the best game or worst game. Life is a series of ups, downs, zigs and zags. Life should be an adventure where the outcome at times is decided in the last 4.7 seconds and clearly both teams deserved to be at the playoffs but the reality is that all the players ultimately are winners!

My mom would always remind me that it was my response to winning and losing that made me either a winner or loser. I’ll never forget a Little League playoff game in Montana where I was the pitcher and got my time into a huge hole. (I must have been 12 years old.) We were behind I think by 5 runs. Over the next 2 innings their pitcher imploded and my team was able to hit 5 home runs and win the game. Did this game make or break the future of these pre-teens? Clearly not and my only memory was that I was a lousy pitcher under pressure but I did help win the game with 3 home runs!


As I watch my grandson being raised in a world where sports can be more important that life itself I want to be better at modeling that what’s more important is how you treat the person who lost. So losing I believe will prepare you for real life where babies cry too much, people get fired for the wrong reasons and sadly at times people die from cancer. Losing shouldn’t push you to win at any cost but to see the opportunity to love those that shouldn’t be playing baseball or soccer but are doing it for their dad or mom J

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