Victories and Defeats
I loved winning and took defeats extremely hard.
"Victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan."
Every Friday, judoists from all over the city would come to our gym for sparring sessions. I remember one of those days—I was about 15 or 16. I fought seven matches and lost only one. And when I was walking home that day, I cried. Can you imagine? Losing was unbearable for me.
Talking about it was even worse. The less time had passed since a bad performance, the more irritated I’d get when some acquaintance decided to ask how the competition had gone.
The questions were always the same:
— So, how’d it go?
— You lost?! To who? Which match?
— What technique got you?
Yeah, I used to take losses way too hard. Over time, that changed…
"Bread and circuses." Sports competitions were invented a long time ago—probably to keep people distracted from real problems.
I’m not a sports fan, even though I used to be a professional athlete. I don’t judge those who are—it’s their choice. In general, I don’t judge many people. Well, except for those who commit violence, stir up ethnic and religious conflicts, and bloodthirsty dictators. (Actually, turns out I judge quite a few. I won’t list them all—this could take a while. Who do you judge? Drop it in the comments.)
I might’ve gotten a little off track. My bad.
I don’t follow sports, but sometimes I come across videos of one athlete pinning another down, and I feel nothing. No excitement, no admiration for the throw. I just think about the loser. About how he feels.
But that’s nothing compared to MMA, where one guy knocks another out cold, and the crowd goes wild. The dude might have just taken brain damage he’ll never recover from, but no one gives a damn.
— Wow, what a hit!
— That was sick!
— He knocked him out beautifully!
You might say, "But they know what they signed up for." And yeah, you’d be right.
As long as people are willing to pay to watch that kind of show, there will always be those willing to risk their health just to put food on the table.
Now I think losses teach us way more than victories ever could.
Besides learning to analyze and correct my mistakes, failures have also taught me to empathize with those who have lost.
"The winner has many friends, but only the defeated have real ones."
If you disagree with me—or, on the contrary, completely agree—let me know in the comments. Either way, thanks for reading to the end.
The image was created by ClickerHappy and taken from pexels.com
https://www.pexels.com/@ClickerHappy
Great stuff. Keep at it.
Thank you, Pedro 🤝
Thank you for sharing on steem! I'm witness fuli, and I've given you a free upvote. If you'd like to support me, please consider voting at https://steemitwallet.com/~witnesses 🌟
Hello, witness @fuli! Thank you for voting for my post! I hope you read it...
Voting for witnesses—is it something like voting for deputies?
When I was a teenager, in my country, deputies would give out frozen chickens and some other products before elections so that people would vote for them.
I hope your upvote does not obligate me to vote for you?
Do you have any election program? Any work plan as a witness? I would love to read it, and if I like it, I will gladly give you my vote.
Thank you!
Wow, it turns out I voted for you earlier witness @fuli! If I'm not mistaken, it was because your profile says "cat lover," so your campaign works for me🙂
Don’t waste your witness votes for spammers… 😉
Thanks for the advice, I guess I haven't figured out who's who yet. Good thing I can get my voice back at any moment🤭😉
Yes, that's right.
If you are unsure, you can use someone who knows what they're doing as a "proxy". I recommend moecki (very active witness, also developer) or steemchiller (developer of steemworld.org). Both know what they're doing and their high responsibility, communicate with other witnesses and they both distributed all 30 votes sensibly.
The vote cast for witness fuli has been withdrawn, now I will be more vigilant when voting for witnesses, thank you🌹
I wonder.. Did you check the free upvote? I have a free upvote for you as well and a cat.
🍀
It's a pity you're not a witness, I would definitely vote for you!
You need a computer and cheap energy for that.
I asked lately how come some who are very active aren't witnesses. If you ask me a few witnesses with direct contact with Steemians is not a bad idea.
Thanks for the trust but being witness is not on my bucket list.
Why’d you write this? Is it because we’ll be leaving the top spot next week in the Steemit quiz? Just joking! 😂
More often than not, that's true.
Yes, it was a preparatory post😁
TSAF🥲
🥹
Have you finally watched this movie?
"In heaven, they're talking about nothing but the sea and how wonderful it is. They talk about the sunsets they saw."
Watching it now...I think I'm going to include this in my next post: the one where they talk about the ocean 😁 Do you think we'll be sitting on the clouds talking about the ocean all day? 🤭
I edited the post and wrote about it, and you happened to write the same thing at the same time.
They say fools' thoughts often align 😁
If we end up on the clouds and not somewhere else, then why not 😉
I think sport is a good thing as long as it doesn't serve commercial purposes. Nowadays, unfortunately, this is only the case in grassroots sport, if at all.
I completely agree with you.