Fitness
How You Can Win Even When You Fail
Failing at competition can suck the life out of your motivation unless you learn how to win when you lose a race. Fortunately for you, ultra-marathon runner Alice Hector is here to tell you how.
We live in a competitive world. Our lives are determined by our performance in work targets, job interviews and, in our case, sporting events. TV programs like Next Top Model or The Biggest Loser are all driven to find the winner, or in the case of the latter, the loser.
This drive to win comes about from our ancestry, when performing well daily was a necessity to our survival. Fortunately, we humans, with our massive brains, were able to think our way to victory, ensuring the survival of our species.
No surprise, then, that the act of winning is so ingrained in our lives. It’s healthy as it makes us work harder. However, winning can be a tricky thing. In a race of 10,000, only one person can truly ‘win’ by definition. Yet I have done races where I have come 3rd, 11th and even 110th and still had the same winner’s buzz. So what does winning mean to you?
This is where your own goals come into force. Effective goals, set well in advance of the due date, should be centered on improving your own ability. That way, you take control and can determine a good or bad result.
Even then, you can’t win every time, or you’ve set the bar way too low. Winning, I would suggest, is very much about positivity and mindset. If you have a feeling of self-worth, surely you are winning? So how do we all become winners?
Recognize losing is inevitable
To win, you have to know loss. Coming up short of your goals is hard to swallow but you can bet that every single highly successful person has had their own struggles. It’s imperative to lose so as to learn. Therefore, ‘losing’ is vital to winning.
Treat each blow as an experience to build on. Michael Jordan said it best: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Get what you give
People love to win. We all want to feel like we matter and that your presence makes a difference. I’ve pulled out of a few races in the past, but I always feel better when I stay near the course to cheer on my competitors. Enjoy others’ wins and they’ll enjoy yours. Winning is far more enjoyable when shared with friends!
Use process goals
Regardless of the outcome, if you’ve committed to your plan, applied yourself and enjoyed the process, then you will have improved yourself, a personal victory in itself.
Don’t compare
If you only look at winning as what happens when you finish first or beat your friends then it’s only inevitable that you’ll feel a sense of loss quite frequently. This thought process can quickly become a habit and you’ll find yourself in a counterproductive, negative mindset. No more winning for you. So challenge yourself to do more than you thought possible. In doing so, you’ll find winning is not a number or a trophy, but a mindset.
Find fitness and life advice in every issue of TRAIN for HER magazine.
