I almost beat my husband at Toy Story Mania yesterday. ALMOST.
Toy Story Mania is a fun arcade-style shooting game. I always lose to my husband. ALWAYS.
Yesterday when we played, I started out very strong. Surprisingly, I was winning after the first three rounds. I felt confident.
No, he was not “letting me win” those rounds.
He was, however, shooting for accuracy instead of focusing on raising his score. I, determined to beat him, concentrated solely on boosting my score.
As we entered the LAST round, I was STILL WINNING.
I felt the taste of victory!
I said to myself, “TODAY IS F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. THE DAY! I AM ACTUALLY GOING TO BEAT HIM!”
Well, in that last round, he decided to focus on raising his score AND his accuracy.
Rut-Roh (in my best Scooby voice).
He won.
He beat me.
I am the blue score. He is the red score.
What this experience taught me (and reminded me to teach our children):
My husband won (again) because he has more practice in this area than I do. He started out in law enforcement nearly 20 years ago. In life, it is not always that someone is “just better than you at something.” Your competition may have more experience with that skill, which means you have to work hard to either catch up to their skill level or decide that you are satisfied with the level you have achieved.
Some people will “just be better than you” at (insert skill). It happens. You will often hear that (insert name) was born with a “gift” for (insert skill). We are all born with individual “gifts.” It is also true that we have to use those gifts, practice them, and improve upon them to “perfect the skill.” Often, the person that wins is not the person born with “the gift,” but the person who invested more time in perfecting “the skill.”
I became overconfident when I was beating him. After the first few rounds, I thought to myself, “I got this today.” Did I work hard to continue winning? Yes, but I did reach a level of “complacency” because my score was so far ahead of his score. I think it is human nature to ease off the pedal a bit when we are “on top.” This is OK. Sometimes we all need a break.
Nevertheless, we have to be careful, and we need to avoid becoming too complacent. Complacency can lead to having the rug swept from under you at the last minute. That is what happened to me. I became complacent, thinking I “had him” only to have him swoop in and win during the last round. If you want to win, make sure you put in 100% from start to finish.
Do not assume anything is “already yours.” No, that victory was not mine because I was “already winning.” People may say, “But I was winning the WHOLE TIME right until the end!”
Well, you did not win when it counted. Nothing is guaranteed until the race is over. You do not deserve to win because you “were winning the whole time.” That is not how it works. If you want to win, you have to win when it counts. You do not win one minute before time is called, you win when time is actually called.
Sometimes you will do everything in your power to win. You will work hard. You will practice. You will avoid becoming complacent. You will do your absolute best. Well, you may still lose. It happens. It may not be a fair loss, or it may be a fair loss. This is a part of life. Losing will still hurt. You will be fine, and life will go on.
You will surprise yourself. You will have victories that you did not expect.
You will disappoint yourself. You will have losses you feel you should have won.
You must have fun in the process. Remember, the process is your life story, and you want to enjoy the ride.
Lastly, you can also hope to catch your competition on an off day and beat them then.
I will keep at it against your dad, and maybe one day, he will have an off day. Hey, stranger things have happened!
