Winners & Losers

Today is Election Day and instead of speculating about the outcome, I thought to share some thoughts about outcomes of even greater import – life and how we live it.

1. A Winner makes commitments—A loser makes promises.
2. When a winner makes a mistake he says, “I was wrong,” when a loser makes a mistake he says, “it wasn’t my fault.”
3. A winner knows what to fight for and what to compromise on; a loser compromises on what he shouldn’t and fights for what isn’t worthwhile fighting about.
4. A winner shows he’s sorry by making up for it; a loser says, “I’m sorry,” but does the same thing the next time.
5. A winner would rather be admired than liked but would prefer both; a loser would rather be liked than admired and is even willing to pay the price of mild contempt for it.
6. A winner listens; a loser sits and waits until it’s his turn to talk.
7. A winner says, “there ought to be a better way of doing it;” a loser says, “That’s the way it’s always been done here.”
8. A winner respects those who are superior to him and tries to learn something from them; a loser resents those who are superior to him and tries to find chinks in their armor.
9. A winner paces himself; a loser has only two speeds—hysterical and lethargic.
10. A winner has a healthy appreciation for his abilities and a keen awareness of his limitations; a loser is oblivious to both his true abilities and his true limitations
11. A winner takes a big problem and separates it into smaller parts so it can be more easily manipulated; a loser takes a lot of little problems and rolls them all together until they are unsolvable.
12. A winner focuses, a loser sprays
13. A winner tries to never hurt people and does so only rarely when it serves a higher purpose; a loser never wants to hurt people intentionally but does so all the time even without knowing it.
14. A winner is sensitive to the atmosphere around him; a loser is sensitive to only his own feelings.
15. A winner stops talking when he has made his point; a loser keeps talking until he’s blunted his point.
16. A loser blames politics and favoritism for his failures; a winner would rather blame himself than others—but he doesn’t waste much time on any kind of blame.
17. A loser is afraid to acknowledge his defects to himself or others; a winner is aware that his defects are a part of the same central system as his assets, and while he tries to diminish their effect, he never denies their influence.
18. A loser feels cheated if he gives more than he gets; a winner feels that he is simply building up credit for the future.
19. A loser becomes bitter when he’s behind and careless when he’s ahead, a winner keeps his equilibrium no matter which position he happens to find himself in.
20. A loser believes in “fate;” a winner believes we make our own fate by what we do or fail to do.

Here’s my personal favorite:  A loser thinks there are rules for winning and losing; a winner knows that every rule in the book can be broken, except one—be who you are, and become all you were meant to be, which is the only winning game in the world.