Pulled this off a board I frequent, I believe it is will and succinctly put: If I am getting my butt handed to me, it is not as pleasant an experience as handing someone else their butt. Stated more generally, we all enjoy winning and few of us enjoy losing. We may accept loss with grace, but that isnt the same as enjoying a loss. Lets get this out of the way: no enjoys losing, and this post isnt about learning how to enjoy loss. This post is about enjoying the game even when youre losing. As a martial artist (Aikido), I have had to develop my shugyo - the art of sucking up pain without paying attention to it. People who are unable to develop this principle in themselves dont last long in a real dojo. I have played against individuals whose shugyo was non-existant. The moment they began to lose, their entire demeanor changed, some became anxious and irritable - some even to the point of belligerence. Their emotional investment eclipsed the joy they could have had from simply playing the game. Now here is the principle, and you dont have to be a martial artist to learn from it: learn to separate your emotional investment from the joy you take in playing the game. You may be losing because youre playing a better player, you may be losing because youve made a mistake or two, or maybe because your fleet is unfortunately inferior to your opponents fleet. Whatever the reason, youre at a crossroad between focusing on being deprived of your emotional investment and being able to enjoy the game that you are losing. The truth (for most of us) is that we already enjoy the game itself, it just becomes unpleasant when we stake something on it that isnt playing out for us. If you can man up, (or woman up as the case may be), and put that out of your mind, you will not only find peace, you will be able to enjoy the game for itself, even as youre losing it - and you may even be able to enjoy your opponents victory along with him (or her). You certainly wont be a sore loser - and here is the thing: the same is true if youre winning. Dont let yourself enjoy winning more than you enjoy the game itself. It cheapens you as a person, and robs you of a simple pleasure in life.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 22:58:04 +0000
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