Why Losing Can Be Good For You

Nobody likes to lose.

It feels like crap to see our efforts crumble. It sucks to be told on our face that we are not good enough (at least for now). But, unfortunately, we DO need to lose sometimes. Losing is like a slap on the face. It works as an alarm clock, waking us up and bringing us back to reality. And we need that sometimes! We need to be reminded that there is always room for improvement and that we can always be better than we are today.

There are great benefits to losing. The reflection process that the losing puts us through is not experienced by the winner. The thorough inner search, replaying every single step of the way; every interaction, every conversation, trying to figure out where the weaknesses are, is something that the winner doesn’t go through. We have 2 options whenever we are faced with defeat, we either drop the towel, lose face and fall into depression or pick up our bags and go back into training. The 1st choice would turn our fault into a failure, but the 2nd would turn it into a glorious comeback!

I recently wrote about a couple of things that I have found common among winners. That past article actually made me start wondering about the least celebrated participants. What do they have in common? There is always only 1 winner, meaning that the majority are always losers, how about them? With the odds of winning against them, there has to be something among all of them.

Losing can be extremely rewarding.

Just as the saying goes, “we get what we need and not what we want.” Or as Steve Jobs said “you can’t connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards.” Now this will all depend on how the person deals with losing and which option they decide to take.

Losing makes you braver.

The majority of us don’t even dare to participate. We are our own obstacle, filling our heads with millions of reasons that tell us why we should not pursue our goals. Nobody likes to lose and those who decided to join the chase for victory overcame it. They for sure hear their fears screaming in their heads but decide not to listen to them. This shows bravery and should also be recognised.

Losing allows you to grow.

Personally, mentally, physically. In order to overcome the shock of losing, a person must understand where the pitfall was. By doing this, the individual is able to identify the areas that need strengthening. By focusing on developing an overall, more complete individual, the former loser is able to outgrow him or herself.

It’s in your hands to decide what you do with your experiences. I personally don’t believe in failure. I think that falling is human and it WILL happen to all of us at some point. But, what matters is if we decide to learn from it or not.

“When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in 2 ways – either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength” – Dalai Lama

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