Life Lessons From Sport: The Art Of Losing

It is very easy to appear at the top of your morals when you win, your nerves are relaxed, and you can implement all your ideas, this is the comfort zone of any human brain.

But the difficulty is to maintain your composure when losing. And to appear the same balanced person who is able to be a role model, there are those who lose and argue with the arbitration, and there are those who lose and complain about grass. There are those who lose and start committing football crimes on the field, and then there are those who lose and order their players to put twice as much effort to train the morning after in order to erase that shame of a loss.

Accepting loss is not an art; rather, it is a fatal mistake. Champions do not accept a loss, but they act with the elegance of heroes, and this is their right.

They may smile so that their opponent does not gloat at them, and this is their right, but the next day they make plans and commit to working to rise again.

In the 2010-2011 season, the Feyenoord team lost 0-10 against PSV Eindhoven in the first leg of the Dutch league, the team did not expel its coach, did not argue about anything, and did not criticize anyone. But issued an official statement with clear words: “A team that loses 0-10 can not blame only the coach”

The second leg match between the two sides was in April 2011, and Feyenoord won 1-3 that match, it is true that they did not return the heavy result in its entirety, but their victory made PSV Eindhoven pay a greater price than all the goals they scored in the first leg because that loss deprived them of playing the Champions League by dropping to third place.

The art of loss is not by accepting it as we have said, but by treating its true causes, congratulating the victor, and preparing for an act of revenge on the pitch by aiming to go forward, not standing on the ruins of the past.

Not accepting a loss isn't about anger screaming or complaining. It is not about blaming surrounding factors, as true as they may seem. It all comes to you and your mentality.

Do you stand still after suffering a loss and keep looking down with shame and anger or do you keep your head up and put in extra work first thing in the morning?