If You Always Won, Would that Be Normal or Good?
Now they’re part of what a normal college experience is. I reminded them that it’s not normal, what we’ve been doing. This doesn’t happen in real life. What they’re experiencing now, that’s real life. What we do going forward will probably be more important than anything that they did this year. – Geno Auriemma, Head Coach of University of Connecticut Women's Basketball
Why should you care about this quote?
It is a great reminder that setbacks, disapointments, and failures are normal and good.
So even if you are not a sports fan, it is a great lesson about why always winning is not good.
Why Always Winning is Not Good
Think about all the lessons you have learned throughout the course of your life. Consider improvements you have made towards your personal growth.
Did all of those lessons come by way of everything going right or smoothly?
I am going to go out on a limb is say emphatically, “No!”
That is because a setback, unfavorable situation, mistake, or failure provided you with those life lessons and your personal growth.
Always winning is not good. It does not prepare you for the painful and hard times.
Constantly winning feels good, but overcoming pain or failure is a whole other type of winning and it feels great!
Losing is Real Life
Going into the 2016-2017 season, the University of Connecticut (UCONN) Women's Basketball had won 75 games without a loss.
No one predicted the 2016-2017 team would be able to sustain the winning streak. In fact, the experts said the team was too young to keep the streak going.
So much for the experts.
The young team made up of mostly freshmen won an additional 36 games going into the 2017 Final Four in Dallas. That was a record of 111 wins without a loss!
On Friday, March 31, 2017 they were up against Mississippi State. The year before, UCONN had embarrassed Mississippi State by defeating them by 60 points.
In double overtime something happened. Morgan Williams of Mississippi State shot a basket in overtime. The net sounded, SWISH!, then the buzzer sounded, ending the winning streak for UCONN.
Understandably, the young team was devastated after the loss. It was under their watch that the winning streak ended. But, as their coach said, what the team had accomplished was not normal.
Losing is real life.
Live a Normal Life
It is time for the women of the UCONN basketball to live a normal life.
Now it is up to those young women to take not always winning and make it a good thing for every aspect of their life.
Therefore, each player on that team has a choice to make. They can choose to let their loss haunt them or they can choose to become better as a result of the loss. The latter choice will set them up for dealing with the normalities of life.
As for you, be okay with not always winning.
Live a normal life by making the best out of losing every now and then.
It's your turn: How will you lose the lessons from the UCONN loss in your life? Share in comments.