Winning IS Everything

"Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing."

                                                   -Henry Russell "Red" Sanders

I recently heard this quote lambasted. "Then what's the point of life?", people say, "To beat everybody else and make yourself important? How lame and inhuman." In my opinion, though, this quote doesn't have to be translated like that.

Sure, it was spoken in a competitive football context, where you winning means that someone else has to lose. But what's the point of football if it isn't to win? As the great Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers once said, "If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?" Good point, Vince. 

So what is the point of your life? What do you want to win? If your goal is to smash the "competition" into the ground and put yourself on top then certainly that isn't honorable and you've probably got your priorities out of whack. But what if your aim is to be the greatest daughter that you can be? To help as many people as you can? To follow Christ in everything? In that case falling short isn't going to do you any favors. Coming in at second place isn't an option. 

Too often we get hung up on the idea that our win equals another person's loss. That's simply not true! George Bernard Shaw supposedly said, "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple.  But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." That's how life works in the real world. 

So don't be afraid to win! You being a success doesn't drag other people down. If you're not winning, who is?

Finish line, a photo by ukanda on Flickr.