Let me do the cliche thing and provide an official definition. Winning, according to dictionary.reference.com, is a noun. The site shows several different definitions, but I thought the following two were fairly accurate: "The act of a person or thing that wins" or as an adjective "successful or victorious, as in a contest: the winning team".
In class today, we were told to write down our own definition of winning for extra credit. Thinking that simplicity would be clever, I wrote down, "Winning is achieving a goal you have set and being satisfied with the results". Was I correct? Was anyone in the class correct? No.
The teacher--once again the teacher who is fond of inspirational speeches--explained, it made a lot of sense. Think of it this way; you cannot always win. The opposite of winning is losing. Therefore, no matter what you do in your life, you will always be a loser in something.
Being a perpetual loser sounds like a fate worse than death! How can this be? Well, our definitions of winning were just not on target. One student said that "Winning is trying", once again, thinking he was clever in a simplistic response. The teacher took the students pencil and put it on the desk in front of him.
"Try to grab the pencil," the teacher instructed.
The student hesitated, fearing a trap or trick question.
"Go on," The teacher said, and as the student went to grab the pencil, it was smacked out of his hand.
"You can either grab the pencil or not. No try," teacher said.
Now I come full circle and try to relate this to ProgressiveU, rather than how my teacher related it to the media field. There's an obvious reason why I'd want to mention the definition of winning for this site. A good deal of us are vying for that scholarship contest, and guess what? Only a few people will "win". So that makes the rest of us losers.
What a thought. Being a loser sucks, right? Why risk being a loser?
Some people give up early. There are some bloggers who come here, post a few times, and quit the site forevermore. Veni, vidi, vici "I came. I saw. I ran away in fright." If you ask me, these are the losers.
I don't like the idea of losing. It sounds so pathetic, doesn't it? If we go with this mentality, I have been a loser for three contests in a row. Three Blogging for Progress Contests. Well, two that I participated in, actually. So I am a loser.
I don't feel like a loser though. After the first contest and the post that declared the winners, I felt a little depressed for a few minutes. I thought I'd worked hard, but really I was quite disillusioned, and I learned through experience how much work you really have to put in.
I've learned so much here, made friends, helped shape my own opinions, and got the chance to do a good deal of writing. That's not losing in my opinion. That's winning in some respect.
Before I reveal my teacher's definition of winning, what is yours? We all have a slightly different definition. I think that understanding such ideas like winning, ideas that seem to be to the point and set in stone, will help us understand ourselves and other people.
My Source is Dictionary.reference.com and my speech-happy professor.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
