Learning from losing

woman jumping across abyss

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What’s So Great About Losing?

 

When I was reading the novel Cloud Atlas, I came across a comment from one of the characters that set me thinking:

“So winners … are the real losers because they learn nothing? What, then, were losers? Winners?” (page 234)

 

The implication of this is that you can’t learn anything by winning.

 

A lot of people who are interested in personal development seem to support this view. Some years ago when I found myself saying once again, “Oh well, at least I’m learning from my mistakes” I decided to change my attitude and make a conscious decision to learn from the positive things in my life rather than only the negative.

 

This was a big shift in my thinking and view of the world, and I was delighted to notice it had a positive impact on what happened to me – life just got easier.

 

At the time I was reading Cloud Atlas, I reflected that I had been finding things more of a struggle, and reading this remark on winners and losers made me realise I’d slipped backwards again. I have become to believe again that things should be difficult, and that losing is somehow ennobling. I gave myself a shake and found in the next few weeks that things started getting easier again.

 

This also reminded me that big shifts in the way I think, don’t just happen once. I need to pay attention to them and make sure I don’t slip backwards in to that old way of thinking.

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