One of my favorite sayings is “winners rule; losers check the rules” .  That is being declared the winner is enough, no further examination necessary.

Sports Contest

In the context of a sporting event the conditions that define the winner are clearly defined.  For example, in a soccer game the winner is the team with the highest score.

The loser might challenge the decision by questioning whether the rules were adhered to.  It is doubtful the winner would do this.

The contest of life

If you have set personal goals to live your life by, the achievement of these should be considered a winning condition.  You may have divided the goals into a series of discrete objective, in which case obtaining an objective is also a win.

To avoid the losers conundrum the goals need to be objective and clearly measurable.  (Did I really lose or is it just the definition of winning – that is question the rules?)  Remember, subjective measures beg for a dispute.

Who is competing.

Unlike a sporting event , in the contest of life you are competing with yourself.  My friends, colleagues and readers of these posts are aware I believe “it’s all about me”.  This fits well with my definition of winning at life.

Winning Feels Good

Hopefully one of your life goals is to feel good.  When you achieve it (i.e., win by my definition) it makes you feel good.  It’s like an exponential curve, winning leads to feeling good, feeling good is a win and ultimately it just spins upward.