Win

We’ve all heard it being said that “winning isn’t everything.” I find that that quote is misleading in so many ways. It treats winning like it’s supposed to be a rare event, something that we aren’t used to. Now for young people, this idea that winning isn’t everything can be detrimental. What should young people chase after? I tell my students that they should chase knowledge and understanding but for what? At the end of the day, I believe it is either for loss or for gain. 

Winning isn’t just being victorious over another individual. Most times, it’s being victorious over the self; to put away the laziness, apathy, or actions that would otherwise harm the self. So in turn of vilifying victory, we’ve glorified losing. I don’t disagree with the notion that “losing teaches us so much about ourselves,” but I have a major issue with it when it comes down to the wire when winning is crucial. People also have forgotten that learning is supposed to lead to winning, not losing.

There is a time to learn and a time to win.

I’m going to go on a limb and say that, by and large, students do not encounter enough times they must win and when they do “feel” it,  it is set by outside factors. The strive for victory ought not to come from the outside but from the inner workings of a person. Our students should find the necessity to win, EVERYDAY. 

Epicurus emphasized the pursuit of pleasure as the ultimate goal of life but defined pleasure in a specific way. He believed that true pleasure is found in the absence of pain and emphasized the importance of moderation, simplicity, and tranquility in achieving a pleasurable life. The value of moderation, simplicity, and tranquility can only be known when one has experienced abundance, complexity, and strife. According to Epicurus, the key to happiness lies in seeking modest pleasures that are easily attainable and avoiding unnecessary desires that lead to pain or suffering. He argued that mental pleasures, such as friendship, freedom, and peace of mind, are more important than physical pleasures and that true happiness comes from living a virtuous and self-sufficient life. Anything in life that came easy, is not lasting. 

But there is an assumption that people have that takes this idea of pleasure and turns it on its head. Pain and suffering are not the end result. The aim is not to chase pain and suffering, as that is the road to losing, but it is to embrace pain and suffering. The pursuit of winning is difficult and it is indeed painful. It is the opposite of pleasure, but without it victory cannot be attained. Why can’t victory be attained without pain? Because there is opposition; a pushback. An, oftentimes, equal force reacting on the force that we project. So simply put, some are playing a semantic game regarding pleasure, victory, and pain. 

There is a presumption that those who chase victory are sore losers. Wrong. A true winner does not complain about their enemy’s win, but contemplates the loss they experienced; they do not have the luxury of being a sore loser. Those who chase victory do not and will not let losing affect their pursuit. Somewhere along the line, society has become so fearful of cultivating sore losers that we have opted to raise individuals who are accustomed to losing so they can be “honorable and graceful losers.” But wouldn’t you agree that that is setting up our students for failure?

Make no mistake, only those who are victors can be honorable, for they have a choice to be; a default choice is no choice at all.

If young people are not pursuing victory because they have some a priori knowledge that the road to victory is paved with pain and suffering, then young people should be taught not to fear pain and suffering. Can we conclude that the fear of pain leads individuals to lose? 

We should chase victory because we can. Because we are beings that are in constant pursuit of something; creatures of movement. So win. Encourage your students to win.