The last one standing. This can be that sure moment of victory.
While acquired wisdom leads to knowing when to get out, game changers stay in the game to win.
We can all suppose if we were back in ancient times where “out” most often meant to the death of someone, there would need to be the ultimate fight to beat all other contenders.
Today, with relief, aside from the rules and engagements of war, the last one standing refers to the winner of a game or challenge.
We can then see a more innocuous fight for victory. The word “fight” being less terminating.
Still, no one wants to lose. Both the innate and ingrained message of the need to be a winner has generationally not left us.
Daily, whether we inducted ourselves or not, someone has managed to put us each in this game called, “Life”.
Sometimes, we find ourselves in an Amazing Race. Sometimes, we scrounge for any skill and focus in a game of Minute to Win It.
Whether running solo at a time of challenge or all are running amuck at the same time to the finish line, the goal is to be the one at the end to be deemed winner or perhaps preferably, champion.
Whether the audience be big or small, any form of applause or cheer at time of victory signifies not to just oneself, but to all who witnessed, the one who took the win.
We can be in a chess tournament where silence is imminent for contenders to advance for the championship.
In yet another forum, many could be in competition where uproars and endless jeering and cheers are inevitable.
Within closed corridors, most always, in the confines of our home, we can find ourselves engaged in a board game or cards game where all work to see who wins.
Here is that moment for deep reflection.
From the first one out to the last, could not all contenders be winners?
While, of course, this should not discourage, deter, or disregard the ultimate role of one who gets the full recognition of victory, there needs be said about anyone who dare compete.
While there is the last one in, what of the first out and those that follow to the next until one is only left?
So, you are out and don’t get to play to the end. For this game, that is.
However, you get to stand back, watch and learn how all others continue to vie for the winning spot during this round.
You now are given a different vantage point where you get to pay close attention to how others are still playing to win.
Take the loss for now and you can uncross those arms that seemingly send the message to the universe of damage, destruction, or disgruntlement.
Should you whine because you didn’t win? (There can be amusement in taking note that the two letters left out spells he.)
Just focus on the game from an eagle’s perspective. If not, an immensely engrossed spectator.
While all others are intensely trying to focus on the game at hand, those out get to watch and observe every move being played by every other player still going for the victory.
It will only be some time later where anyone who contended will have gathered all they need to know to be the last one standing when a next opportunity presents itself.
Is not the only way one truly loses is if they don’t ever get back in the game again?
When opportunity for another chance is once again given, does not this provide choice for victory?
As long as there is learning and progress, one can accept defeat, but must not think, defeated.
Personally, this had been my own, inner fight- the anxiety of chance losing.
I could not accept defeat out of the fear of feeling defeated.
I shared with you my silent discomfort and perhaps, fury, losing to my husband in a game of chess several years ago.
Your greatest friend is sometimes also your nemesis, challenging you to quit or keep going at the same time.
It only took to now where I can happily smile and accept defeat.
I may have to still work to beat my husband in chess, but it sure feels humbly good to beat him in a card game of Speed or Poker.
You just have to keep growing in the going.
I wonder how many have stopped going because they stopped growing.
I wonder how many stopped growing because they stopped going.
After years of having seen many games played, I witnessed many crushed spirits, eventually including my own, as a child, depleted from all the energy exerted, only to not be the last one standing or getting highest recognition.
And, then, some growing up happens.
The games continue with or without you.
You learn to pick well with the right intent of knowing, understanding purpose and envisioned outcome.
A moment of next opportunity, where one decides to recover, restart, and thus, redo, with the intention to do better, arises until victory is in their hands.
Winning, such a potent for greatest want.
I’ve come to understand, while winning serves as an elixir to soothe this ache inside, a desensitization can take place.
Lose, and two things seem to direct- a losing or winning spirit.
Losing and losing again can teach hopelessness. Eventually, while one may still be in the game, one may submit to a losing role, no longer expecting much, only ready to lose again.
Trained to lose in spirit, the heart, mind, and body, anticipate the same outcome.
Sadly, the losing does not even have to start with you.
Comfortably and acceptably hang around those who accept losing, the same channel of energy become your own.
There comes this satisfaction in feeling like the biggest winner in the room, no feels of threat to lose around.
Who is in the room, however? Where are the real winners?
Fighting against such, I realize, is your first greatest fight to victory.
You don’t win?
Well, at least those around you know the feeling.
Now, think to Newtonize (my word to honor Sir Isaac Newton’s law in physics) that realm.
The anticipation of a winner is that contrary to even a recent loss, that winning feeling lays afloat in the flesh, desiring once again, the same fire of energy.
Another round must be taken to arrive to that euphoric feeling once more- that feeling that felt so briefly good, inexplicable in its shortness of length, and so, ached upon to feel again, and again.
Mindset is key.
Choice in game also plays a major factor.
Time started even before we became aware of its existence. The games we choose to play in under the time we are given must be a conscious choice.
Playing a game where chance is controlled by someone or something else is different from entering in a challenge where your efforts, skills, and tactics offer great weight in determining the outcome.
One who loses to the extent of where they have essentially lost too much, where one doesn’t stop, simply lost control and sadly, much time.
The good thing is, as long as one puts in the work to learn from the past losses to control the future outcome, victory is ahead.
Take it from a mother and teacher where quitting first leaves many left behind.
Game changers stay in the game.
Persevering ones, those who have been tested atop, afloat, and under waters, understand the feeling of sheer victory.
The victory doesn’t even have to be a big one or many times, most always, for others to take note.
A simple head out of the waters to get a breath- enough to swim to shore. This can be enough for one to be ready for another chance.
You only need one winning moment, one winning day, to be given energy to come back.
Feeling to lose several days which then, could lead to several weeks of feeling to never win again, until months and a year have passed by, and the depletion leads you to anticipate, to work toward the same outcome until the days arrive to the end.
This is why one must step away to recover.
If not to find anyone around you who will be the boost of sunshine and light to keep you going, inner strength within awaits.
Weariness of kryptonite is a must.
I have humored that teachers get breaks and summers off under the unspoken gesture, “Take some time off to recover. Please come back again.”
It is not just per moment, per class, but to the end of each day, each week, each month, and eventually, each year, where one must stay in the game.
While others are calling you a hero, deep inside you are haunted by moments where you instead had a “z” to rhyme with that word.
In school, in moments of challenge to persevere through tough storms of the heart, the mind, the body, and the spirit, both students and teachers have played the game of, “How much time is left?” whether outwardly spoken or just silently watching the clock.
Neither teacher or student should take this personal.
Neither student or teacher who returns have quit.
Sometimes, another chance for a do-over is just what you need to do things better the next time around.
If the heart, the mind, the body, or the spirit is feeling at a loss, what we both respectfully and quietly say to ourselves is, Just a little longer, I can step out of here, recharge, and come back to try again.
Unfortunately, if the mind does not recharge, the expectation and thus, mental anticipation, will lead the same outcome for both.
Change, at times, must be required out of the game changer, not the game.
If there has been no moment to reflect on how things could have gone better, there is no game plan to win; the outcome of the game stays the same.
You are coming in, losing. You will work only to that very direction every time.
Once arrived to that same destination, there is no surprise, just pure anticipation.
Control is a gift. Your destiny is your loss or victory.
There are no clocks in casinos. Ever think why?
Where you are not in control of a game, the game controls you.
While you lost track of time, time never stopped ticking.
Game changers stay in the game. That doesn’t suggest they don’t know what game they are playing and how to play.
