Several years ago, I discovered a plain system in which situations commonly worsen! I had a soccer game against a team called the freeze and I was starting offense. To put the first half of the game in summary, nothing was scored on offense, really close, but nothing was scored except a kick from the other team putting the score at my team zero, their team one. When half time approached, the coach decided to put me back in but as defense this time. When it came down to it, I played pretty well and we won the game after the second half with our team three and their team, “The Freeze” one. But, after the game I felt a little bad that I didn’t score a point and started beating myself up inside. When my parents picked me up after the game, I started saying stuff like “I played pretty well didn’t I” or “Did you think I did good” which all came with the common replies such as “Yeah you did ok.” This cycle of me asking how I did and getting “OK” answers continued with me wanting a reply such as an enthusiastic, “Great Job”! Unfortunately, this reply never came because my questioning began to change more along the lines of “I did better than him didn’t I?” or “We had the best defense for sure?” As this cycle continued to my imminent contentious attitude from the experience and eventually, my imminent time out. As I prayed and pondered upon the experience later that night, I came to learn one of the greatest lessons of life and competition. Begin with encouragement in mind! Had I began with a statement such as, “What a great game!”, “Did you see how great my team played today” or even, “thanks for the ride.” The ride home and the entire situation would have ended with a much more positive note.
"No matter how many people, how much determination. The only person you’re ever competing with is yourself."
"A true winner at something doesn’t just win that battle against themselves though, they win in all aspects of conscience!"
Just by using the gift and power of encouragement, we can all be winners everyday!
