Winning in Life
is not about how much you made or what you got, but, simply, is about how well
and peacefully you played!
It is
fantastic to win. To compete. To work hard. To want to get all that you want! To
be on top of the world and to celebrate your conquest of hitherto uncharted
waters. But it is also important you play. And just play. And play to enjoy the
playing than wanting only the winning. This I say from a Life attitude point of
view. Several of us have a 'winning obsession'. Nothing wrong with it. Without
wanting to win, there can be no discoveries, no conquests, no progress and no excellence.
Yet know
also that Life may always not be fair. What if, despite your best effort and
intent, your Life doesn’t fit into any logical framework? You have no idea of
what’s happening to you and how you are going to handle it. How would you
classify winning in such a scenario? When WHATEVER you try, how much ever you
try, Life keeps plucking away from your hand?
In Life you
can keep asking these questions, including others like ‘Why (only) Me?’ or ‘Why
now?’. But there are no immediate answers. Your measure of success,
financially, socially, physically, is always disproportionate to both your
effort and intent. This is the harsh reality. Which is, the harder you work,
the more ethical you work, the lesser you get rewarded in proportion! Yet you
must play on. Remember, you DON'T have the option of quitting the game. Because
quitting is easy. It is simply conceding defeat. It is in the playing, staying
on, fighting every single day, getting better, not BITTER, with Life, that
there is the winning, in this game of Life!
The world
may define success as performance on parameters that are ‘visible’ and
measurable __ the most easily available metric being money. You will be
encouraged, actually coerced, to believe that success is only equated with how
much you have in the bank, what is your credit-worthiness and what is the
'method' you employed to get rich?
But true wealth
is your rich experience of having lived a full__irrespective of your
circumstance__Life. Real success is not giving up and being positive and being
present when Life is happening to you.
I don't know
what you think. Or which side of Life you are on. But what I can tell you, and
what you may want to tell your kids, is that Life will come at you, despite
your best effort and intent, not to see you winning with riches and rewards,
but to teach you how to win when all you have is a crown of thorns and a cross
to bear! Winning then is just being present. Just being. When you are just
being, you are refusing to lose. And know
that we cannot quit the game, because while giving in is an option (giving in =
loving what IS!) in Life, giving up is not! We may depart some day, as all of us
will, but it must not be because we quit the arena. But because we were called
back by Life!
Here’s an
old Tao story on an archer’s obsession, his desire, to win! And there’s a great
learning there for all of us too.
WHEN
AN ARCHER IS SHOOTING FOR FUN
HE HAS ALL HIS SKILL.
IF HE SHOOTS FOR A BRASS BUCKLE
HE IS ALREADY NERVOUS.
IF HE SHOOTS FOR A PRIZE OF GOLD
HE GOES BLIND
OR SEES TWO TARGETS -
HE IS OUT OF HIS MIND.
HIS SKILL HAS NOT CHANGED,
BUT THE PRIZE DIVIDES HIM.
HE CARES.
HE THINKS MORE OF WINNING
THAN OF SHOOTING -
AND THE DESIRE TO WIN
DRAINS HIM OF POWER.
HE HAS ALL HIS SKILL.
IF HE SHOOTS FOR A BRASS BUCKLE
HE IS ALREADY NERVOUS.
IF HE SHOOTS FOR A PRIZE OF GOLD
HE GOES BLIND
OR SEES TWO TARGETS -
HE IS OUT OF HIS MIND.
HIS SKILL HAS NOT CHANGED,
BUT THE PRIZE DIVIDES HIM.
HE CARES.
HE THINKS MORE OF WINNING
THAN OF SHOOTING -
AND THE DESIRE TO WIN
DRAINS HIM OF POWER.
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