Thinking About Defeat: How to Deal With Losing in All Its Forms

          Let’s just make one thing abundantly clear, nobody enjoys losing whatsoever. The pain that comes with being bested by someone else is never good, and sometimes that awful feeling never goes away, the worst losses often don’t. But then again, no one ever goes through life undefeated. At some point everyone has had to swallow the bitterness that is defeat. But how can we make the losses feel better? How can we deal with the defeat?

          As someone who has done a fair share of losing in his heyday, the best answer I can give is to move on. You can’t change the past. There is no point in lingering the half-second decision you might have made that didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to, thoughts made in hindsight will never change the score of any game. The most important thing is to pick your head up and move on to whatever the next match may be.
 
          But moving on does not neccesarily mean forgetting. Losing can be compared to a burning fireplace: in the immediate aftermath, it burns. It burns and damages your competitive spirit and singes your pride and your will to compete. Again, as previously stated, losing really sucks. But as time passes, the loss becomes more comparable to the wood in a fireplace rather than the fire itself. It serves as fuel for future triumphs. You never want to forget how a loss makes you feel in an attempt to make you feel better, but you also don’t want to hyperfixate on specific aspects of the loss. Instead, take in the bigger picture, the macro-emotions you felt immediately after the loss that you never ever want to feel again, and use that as motivation to play better, to be better, in the upcoming days, weeks, and months.

          At this point, it’s become apparently clear that this isn’t really a “sports” article per se. Sure, this can apply to on-field matters, but a topic as heavy as lsoing shows up in all walks of life. Besides, who says that lessons learned on the field can’t also apply to real life?