The art of losing … with a smile on our face

I like to win.

I like it so much that when I find myself in at bookshop I am always attracted to the “motivational books” section that have taught me how to channel my cosmic energy and do yoga to rediscover my inner balance. I have also learnt how to meditate to foster positive thinking and tried out all kinds of spiritual disciplines, because….. we need to find self-confidence inside ourselves.

I like to win, but I keep on losing and that is my own sad truth.

But this truth is not particular to me, because failure, defeat and not achieving one’s goals are the bread-and-butter of us nonprofessional athletes. There is no denying that we train a lot, but we have to come to terms with the fact that swimming is not our job and we can only devote a certain amount of time to it. That is why we always feel weak and, at times, even ridiculous when we get on the starting blocks, and this insecurity is reflected in our results as we keep on recording the same times and making the same damn mistakes for months (and sometimes years) on end.

Once I found a copy of a book called “The Art of Winning” on the shelves of a bookstore. On that particular day I had no intention of reading the book in question to find out the secret recipe for success, but I did ask myself a question that turned out to be pivotal: if winning is an art, should not losing be one, too?

We have become real experts at turning every minor goal we achieve into a victory worthy of the Olympics, but are we equally good at accepting defeat? Do we know how to leave the pool having lost and accept that failure?

We all like the intoxicating taste of success, but wouldn’t it also be a victory to learn how to lose so that we could learn something from all our failures?

Yes it would, because losing is an art and is not going back to the pool with a smile on your face despite everything  that has happened also an art?