Life Lessons: Even the Best Fail
I am going to use a recent example to help prove the points I want to make in this blog post.
Even the Best Fail: The 2019 Houston Astros.
The 2019 Houston Astros were a team that had broken lots of records and has had one of their best seasons ever. They notched up 107 wins out a 162-game regular season of Major League Baseball. They would win the Western division of the American League as well as home advantage throughout the postseason. They would also defeat the Tampa Bay Rays in five games of the American League Divisional Series. They would defeat the New York Yankees in six games in the American League Championship Series to advance to the World Series. So to many people, the Astros should be favored to win the championship, right? They were... but they failed at immortality. Rather than get their second championship within three years, the team whose campaign was "Never Settle" had to settle for seeing the Washington Nationals win the 2019 World Series in a seven-game marathon.The sad reality is that nobody remembers you or cares about you if you fail to win the top prize of a profession or anything else in life. So the 2019 Astros' season feels more like a failure in that something this good falls short of winning the ultimate prize. You work absolutely hard to try to accomplish something you put your heart and soul into. When it comes that you failed at reaching the top, you feel defeated, and you feel like all your hard work goes for nothing. Fact is...
Even the best fail.
If we all train ourselves to be at our best yet still come up short, are we REALLY the best at what we do? Do we try to be as foolproof as possible so that we don't even think about failure? Or do we just fail despite being so vastly trained? Even you will fail if you consider yourself the best at something. Think of people in entertainment who have tried to win awards for their work in television and media and come up short.
I can tell you as someone who watches lots of sports, absolute favorites end up losing. It's a part of life. Something will make the best people and teams crack. If you go through life thinking nothing can stop you and that is is a foregone conclusion you will win in life; then you have already lost the battle, especially in thinking you can't be stopped. What happens WHEN you lose when you think and act like you're the best? You feel defeated. When we have this "championship or bust" mentality, the best are SUPPOSED to deliver a title; or otherwise, the entire season will be a failure. This just means incredible (and sometimes unnecessary) pressure like you won't believe as well as lofty expectations. Like, there is no reason why you should fail to win a championship considering the talent you possess.
This is why I don't believe in expectations or think prematurely that the best will always win. I can't tell you how defeated and depressed I was when I saw my Houston Astros lose to the Washington Nationals in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series. All the glory goes to the team who wins, and the team who fails is usually just an afterthought. Few care about who loses because we are a people who praise winners. A lot of us don't even believe in moral victories. You either succeed in your given field, or be content with being the bridesmaid (as opposed to being the bride).
Maybe you are a parent or someone trying to make others better. If you tried all you could for that person to succeed and still fail, you did all you could to get someone to be at his/her best. There are just some moments where someone simply is not going to be the best at everything. Perhaps that person can try harder to be better prepared for things, but it may not eventually work out in the end.
Recovering When the Best Fail.
If you feel you are the best or if you are trusted in being the very best at something, and when you fail at trying to achieve victory, you feel defeated. Anyone or anything that seems unbeatable will eventually crack. It is natural to feel disappointed you did not reach your goal(s). It is even natural to feel like you've let down people who believed in you and felt you had the best opportunity to do something amazing. However, it is not the end of the world just because you failed at being the best. Even some of the finest have had to deal with second best and failure. YOU WILL FAIL. How you handle failure, though, will help you in trying to make yourself better.Failure is something that should make you stronger. Either you can learn from your failures to try to be better for the future, or you can let failure consume you and define you for a long while or even the rest of your life. While failure is tough to accept, it is a part of life. Even I have had my fair share of low moments in grade school and in college. I hated knowing I failed a class or a test, and then having to show my parents and my family just how much I was not as good as I could be. Regardless, I kept going for better or worse.
Also, you are not a failure just because you are seen as the best (or at least the most capable) yet still come up short. It just means someone or something found a way to defeat you or make you fall short of accomplishing an ultimate goal. You can't let failure bring you down. You may have to live with failure, but you shouldn't let it ruin you. One thing you can do is to look at all of your positive qualities and celebrate small victories. Some people aren't even fortunate enough to feel good about themselves once they fail. People do want to be their best and be considered the best, but think about all the people who wish they could be as successful as you are and what some would be willing to do to make it happen. Especially in something like sports, you're going to win and lose a lot. Letting failure define you only makes you feel unable to ever be the best. Try taking your best qualities and knowing what it takes to be at your best and try to do better at something.
Sometimes, luck will bring you down. Some believe it is better to be lucky than good. Some entities can simply endure a time where they enter some kind of funk when they are supposed to be favorites and fully capable of accomplishing any task. I can think of sports teams who simply get exhausted or enter some kind of futility that eventually leads to their downfall. It happens. The goal here is to try to work around those times of futility and make the most with what you have. Maybe you being the best just means you come into a time where times are slow and you face something hot or talented that brings you down. So while you are trained to be the best, you sometimes need luck to ensure you will accomplish your goals. Do not rely on luck- just have it as "insurance" for you and your goals.
Final Thoughts.
Everyone should train and work towards being the best at anything and everything people set their best efforts to. When you are at your best and still fail, you have to keep working towards being being your best. Maybe you are NOT the best or at a best level. What you can do in that time is to not beat yourself up over your failures. Use failure as motivation to do better the next time you face a certain situation or the next time you have a chance to accomplish your goal(s). Even those who have struggled to eventually become successful have had to deal with failure after failure. Sometimes, your best is not good enough because of other talent or even luck. The biggest failure of all is being or feeling like you are destined for greatness and feeling as if you can not be stopped. Something WILL stop you in the end to prevent you from being the absolute best. Keep trying and don't give up on your dreams if you know you can be the best. Living with failure is tough, but finding ways to remain the best even on your worst days is paramount to your success as a whole. You owe it to yourself to work towards and become "the best version of yourself."I originally had this blog post to talk about my beloved Houston Astros, but I figured I made this to be valuable life lessons to all of you. I hope you appreciate my efforts. This has been another post of "John's Life Space." I hope you were able to extract some knowledge from me to help you with your life. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.
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