Winning or Losing

I got 69 for Chinese and my classmate got 93, though I speak more fluent Mandarin than him. My school’s basketball team made the 3-point shot after the time-out whistle and “lost” the game 52-54. Winning and losing are meanings we attribute to different circumstances and situations we find ourselves in, whether set up initially as a game, competition or just merely events in life.

When we allow winning and losing to count for more than the process of learning, more than sportsmanship, more than character and values, we are missing the point. We are prizing outcomes above process. A question that demonstrates the absurdity of this attitude is that: “if life ends with death anyways then why does it matter how we live?” Of course it matters what happens between the starting point and the outcome. It matters how we win, and it matters also how we lose.

When we allow the winning or losing to mean more than the work we put in to attain the result. When we value the work we do based on the outcome we get, then we miss the point. And we miss the true value of what the process is for. A life lived like this will never get to truly enjoy the wins, nor truly learn and gain from the losses.