Happy Friday you wonderful humans.
You either win, or you learn.
Have you ever wondered why some people are able to go through immense hardship and disappointment yet still be able to bounce back and go about their business day without a peep or complaint, while others struggle to get through a day without screaming woe is me?
This facet of life fascinates me. Is it simply a mindset or attitude adjustment? Or is it something more fixed. Much of who we are is outside of our control. Who our ancestors are, where we are born, what we are born into and who our parents are.
Let’s skip the free will or determinism discussion for today and agree on one thing. If there is even the slightest % of our psyche and the human condition that is up to us, then there is no discussion to be had.
Who we are and who we want to be is ultimately determined or shaped by the lens through which we decide to view the world. Seemingly we are all wired slightly differently yet ultimately we have the same level of control over our perception of the world. Perception control is like a muscle, it adapts through stimulus and trial and error. The more it is exercised, the larger its capacity becomes.
Life can be fantastic one day, and rubbish the next. Each day we experience lots of little wins and lots of little defeats, some are bigger than others, some hurt, and some take longer to recover from. Whether it’s in sport or business, we are quite often presented with learning opportunities disguised as heavy defeats and disappointments.
One thing we are not guaranteed is a second chance. Life is a competition. And in competition you have two outcomes. Of those two options, defeat is not one of them. You either win, or you learn.
Any successful team knows that you do not accept in victory, that which you would not accept in defeat. Winning can paper over cracks, and we must remain vigilant in our pursuit of excellence.
At the end of the day, you win some and you lose some. You just want to win more than you lose.
When you do lose, make sure you learn.
Love Wallace
[Edited by Steph]
Podcast #91
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““We’re taught everything about the body and about agriculture in Madagascar and about the square root of pi, or whatever the hell it’s called, but not a word about the soul.We’re abysmally ignorant, about both ourselves and others.
There’s a lot of loose talk nowadays to the effect that children should be brought up to know all about brotherhood and understanding and coexistence and equality and everything else that’s all the rage just now.
But it doesn’t dawn on anyone that we must first learn something about ourselves and our own feelings…
How can you understand other people if you don’t know anything about yourself? Now you’re yawning, so that’s the end of the lecture.”
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// Ingmar Bergman //
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