In middle school, I once played in a timed chess tournament. Although I was a rookie to the game, I knew the basics and had a solid idea of the concept with simple strategies. My opponent (who’s name nore face I can remember) beat me in under three minutes. Three minutes! It takes five minutes to cook Uncle Ben’s Quick Rice. This means he still had two minutes left to grab a bowl, a spoon (or fork which ever you prefer), and wait for the “ding” to sit and eat. Yet, I shook his hand and walked away from the table with no grit about it. The question is why? Why didn’t this loss inflict a death blow to my pride? All those hours of practice and dedication of learning how to maneuver a board of light and shaded squares pushing against one another as if good and evil were competing for the same living space, only to lose in under three minutes. Why was the 13 year old version of myself not upset? I never once thought he cheated or it wasnt a fair game, nor was I a bad strategist. I told myself that next time, it will be 5 minutes before I get up from that table. Thats right! Uncle Ben’s rice would have to wait on me next time.
In perspective, I didn’t loose. Instead, I learned how to fight a little longer, which moves not to make and what to look for. Every time I lost a game I still walked away with a win. It just depends on how you look at it. I did not show myself as a sore loser because of the perspective my brain applied the situation under.
Focus on what you gain, which is what you win from the loss. This perspective of the win could solve issues, settle debates, reveal life lessons, indicate outcomes, and rectify problems if you reprogram the way you perceive the situations you are faced with. If you have read my third blog post (third from the bottom) then you can gather I have been divorced twice in this life time. Yet I have been blessed to have a beautiful wife whom I am indeed happily married with and getting ready to celebrate our first anniversary. Woooo!!! Now lets go for another year and see how far we can make it. Day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. We as individuals need to understand that bad things happen BUT good things come from those moments of bad which majority of the time lead to better situations.
Prime example: I wrote this blog on my cell phone because my computer called it quits. I could be upset, piss and moan and let that negative energy keep me from sailing the wave of international data streams denying you a fairly good read. Or I could just grab my phone, throw on my warm robe, have a drink and type away. Diligently looking to make sure the right buttons or “images” of buttons are being selected do to my big thumbs and this small space of a touch screen.
In the end, be conscious of how you receive the situations you are in and how you react. Never perceive a situation as a total loss, since personally I feel we can always gain something from every lossing, winning or down right breaking even situation.
