Winners and Losers

With the Olympics over, I am mulling over the concept of winners and losers. More specifically that you can lose by a millionth of a second and you are in second place. You get no glory, no fame, but technically, aren’t you just as good as the first place winner?

I don’t compete in things much. And when I do – I don’t necessarily put my whole heart into it. If I had to analyze myself, I would say its because I’m protecting myself from the pain of loss. Because let’s not sugarcoat it – there’s a lot of pain when you put all you’ve got into something and you fall short.

I run in 5K’s and I’ll start in the back of the line to let others who are more competitive get out ahead of me. Same with bike races.

For golf, I laughed it off as its “not my sport.” I only golf because of my husband. If I did poorly, I could say, “Well, I never took a lesson.” Or, “I don’t golf that much.”

And I don’t really.

Except this year we joined a club and I started to head out on Ladies Nights and Couples Mixers. I was having fun and discovered I’m not that horrible at the game.

So…I’m struggling with this idea – should I continue with trying harder to get better at golf? Or do I just laugh it off as a sport I enjoy, but won’t put my heart into?

If I try at this game, there is a strong likihood I will fail at some point. I don’t really want to feel heartbreak and sadness. I see heartbreak and sadness at the Olympics and it doesn’t look very fun.

My husband, however, gets out there. He’s competitive and he tries. He holds nothing back – there are no excuses when he’s done. Man, I wish I could play like that. But he gets upset, too. I see it when he’s on the edge of greatness, but falls a little short. He’s questions everything in life -including the very thing he loves the most – golfing.

But here are some facts about hubby of his accomplishments this year that he may have overlooked:

1. He got his first eagle. It was on a par 5. I witnessed it

2. He shot his lowest score ever a few weeks back. And he entered it into his handicap, which actually lowered his handicap before a big tournament. Who else would have done that?

3. He’s golfed the most this summer than he’s ever had before – averaging 13 rounds a month.

4. He’s supported me to do all the Ladies Nights (I’ve only missed one due to vacation) and Couples Mixers

5. He’s in the semi-finals of his team match play. (They’ve beat two teams to get this far)

Unfortunately, when you want something so badly, you don’t see all the wonderful things that have happened to get you there. Like runners who break records in a previous trial only to get the bronze at the Olympics.

The best moments in life are few and fleeting. But you’ll never get to the next great moment if you don’t keep chasing them. I’ll keep chasing mine and I hope you, and my husband, keep chasing yours.