Sore Losers

You can’t always win. That’s a fact of life. Whether at a game, a sport, or during a fight, there will always be either a loser or a draw at most if circumstances allow. If there is a winner, someone will be on the losing side. No one is perfect; that party could very well be you.

Many people take this fact gracefully. It’s okay to fail sometimes, after all, as long as you don’t actively try to repeat the mistakes that gave you your losses in the first place. Occasionally, it’s even better not to win - if your goals were bad in the first place.

However, certain people just do not take kindly to losing. In their heads, they must always be winners. Anyone else’s advantages are beatings to their egos; any losses, stab wounds. No one should ever have the ability to defeat them, right?

Obviously, this is not a healthy mentality to have. If one always won, a lot of people would end up having to lose as your life goes on. When it comes to arguments when you’re not in the right, this could be especially bad for everyone involved in the long run.

Even with simple games and debates, other people do deserve the chance to win from time to time. The world does not always revolve around you.

No matter how rich or poor you are, whether you’re the president of the United States or just an average citizen of a country, or how much physical prowess you possess, people will not unanimously try to let you win in every battle you face. They don’t want to, when they have their own hopes and dreams about winning like you as well.

Despite all that is mentioned above, some people will still stop at nothing to win - even when the potential short-term gains are far outweighed by the long-term consequences.

They’ll resort to lying and cheating. Perhaps a little bit of thievery or taunts on top of that, if they’re feeling particularly desperate. In extreme cases, physical harm and outright murder could result.

Do they care about the morality of their actions? Maybe just a tiny bit. But their ambitions to win no matter what end up clouding their judgements and blinding them to the possibility of simply doing the right thing instead of aggressively seeking personal gain.

With everything being said above, this article is not attempting to say that winning is always bad and should be avoided at all costs to prevent oneself from going off the deep end. It does feel good to win. That pleasure shouldn’t always be denied, either.

In some cases - like certain battles where the opponents are legitimately terrible people who would make the lives of others miserable if they won - winning against one’s opponents is very much important to keeping the safety of innocent people in check.

Being bitter that one lost in such a scenario would not be bad - as long as you can channel that anger into persevering. Stewing in misery with no productive action wouldn’t exactly be helpful.

That being said, losing in something as simple as a sport, game or casual debate shouldn’t cause outright despair and panic in the long run. At the end of the day, they are simply brief events which do not have other people’s sanity or health at stake. Bemoaning a loss for such an occurrence is pointless at best and pathetic at worst.

Instead of despairing over one’s loss, use it as an opportunity to improve oneself. Maybe one didn’t win that time. But why? What led to it that could be avoided in the future for similar situations? That way, one may actually be able to have an accomplishment later on.

Any other thoughts on this? Let me know in the comments!

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