A Winning Attitude

Watching the Olympics this week, I am reminded that there's such a fine line between the joy of victory and the agony of defeat. Athletes in their prime, so strong and swift, can cross the finish line fractions of a second apart from each other, yet only one athlete wins the gold. Those who miss a medal by such a narrow margin can be devastated by their defeat. Why should the athlete in 2nd or 3rd place, or last place for that matter, feel any less of a winner when the fact is they can still out-perform most everyone in the whole world?

Last year my daughter Natalie ran in a cross-country race with girls her age from across the county. Natalie is very strong and flexible, but when it comes to running, her brother Elijah always outshines her. Elijah had already run his cross-country race and had placed very high. I was concerned about Natalie comparing her performance to that of her brother's. She ended up finishing the race in 98th place out of 300 girls. When she called me to tell me the results, I was preparing to console her with words like "Well, if you did your best, that's all that matters" or "but look how good you are at doing cartwheels!". Much to my surprise however, I didn't need to use those phrases because she happily announced, "Mom! I was faster than over 200 girls!!"

I laughed out loud as I realized that she had the right perspective absolutely. I said "You are so right, girl. Way to go!!" We don't have to be the best at something to see ourself as a winner. She taught me a good lesson that day.