Things happen daily – Some good, some not so good and some neutral. It is always good to keep perspective when things happen which appear to be not so good.
I went to watch my son Tawfiq play in his team’s final soccer knock-out game today. They had won the league championship with only one defeat during the whole season and were playing for a double: knock-out cup and league championship! The high scoring game ended at 5 – 5 and they lost on shoot-out on penalties.
It was a loss but the gain was that the two of us spoke about the game and identified the following learnings:
1. Their team was trying to play complicated soccer with fancy footwork instead of keeping their game simple, effective and direct.
2. They were a bit slack because they had thrashed their opponents during the normal league game. The past does not equal the future!
3. They have a more important tournament happening in a few weeks where there is more to gain. They can apply the learning from today’s shoot-out loss.
A defeat is only a defeat when there is no learning from it.