to the little girl who tried so hard and made us so proud even before the race started…. the most enjoyable part of my day is when we run (you and I also dida and I on the way to school)
Winning is everything!
In a way this is what we teach our children all the time in some manner or the other. We just forget to teach them who they are racing against and what really is the objective? In doing so we do them a great disservice, we take away their self respect.
Winning is just one of the many things that adds up to a well rounded, successful person, and personally I feel it’s the smallest of all the things that add up. It’s a by product of being good at your craft.
Selecting your field of dominance is an important aspect. Find out what you are good at, what interests you and where do you want to be. Focus on learning about your field of choice. Does it make you happy? Who are you doing it for? Never do anything for the outside world, do it by all means for you and yourself alone because end of the day you are with your own self and outside inputs though fun and fancy will not help you feel accomplished and successful.
Building potential I feel is one of the things that is very important. A consistent effort to get better at things you do. Being truthful. Being truthful is a huge factor. If you cheat even in the preparation phase you’re just cheating yourself and not really focusing on the purpose. The purpose is to attain proper mastery of your craft not “just for the purpose of winning” but more for the purpose of becoming an authority on that topic.
Do not be discouraged by defeats at the races. Races are for horses. You have a different competition, that competition is you yourself. You need to be better than what you were yesterday not better than the others in the race. To be better than yourself you need to do things daily, change, fix, tweak, learn, observe, tweak, repeat. It’s a recursive cycle. Keep getting better and better, never stop. Certificates from the world mean nothing if you know you did not do your best. Do it right, do it better, again… tomorrow.
If you focus on building potential and not just on winning, if you focus on learning from what you practise, if you’re always running the race against yourself and never against others, if you appreciate the opportunity to enjoy your craft and find more and more ways daily to have fun while dong it all…… victory will always be yours because “you know”. Always like in practise be calm in victory as well. Because end of the day winning isn’t everything and those certifying your victory are not credible enough to know your potential. You alone can certify your victory, you alone can tell yourself, I did good, because you alone know what you are capable of because you alone have reached those limits and pushed them a little more every day of your life!
Last but not the least, do it for yourself. More often than not if you do it for the others you will end up injuring yourself, damaging your self, feeling unaccomplished and unworthy because your sense of accomplishment will always be tied to the approval of the person who you did it for. Yes your mom and dad and sister will be proud of you when you breast that tape but trust me we will be always proud of you even before the race starts because we know you did your best and you did it for yourself so don’t worry about people around you, they know, and if they don’t then they do not matter.