We all need to learn that defeat is your road to victory. No defeat needs to be final, and we can always pick ourselves up and go on to taste victory.
That is what at the moment I have to tell myself each time I come of the badminton court experiencing defeat. I pick myself up, try to develop my game more and go back on court trying to do better. I know the day will come when I am victorious. I just know it! I keep telling myself defeat is the road to victory.
I am sure that most of you reading this will have at some point of your life gone through a variety of ups and downs. Life is simply like a rollercoaster ride. When we go to the amusement park and head towards that fearsome rollercoaster, we know that we are going to get thrown all over the place, at times the speed will feel way to fast, we’ll feel our stomachs coming up towards our mouths, but we hang in there, knowing that we have to experience this journey to reach the destination. When we do disembark from that crazy ride we then want to tell the world we rode the rollercoaster and survived.
Sport very much reminds us that life is a series of ups and downs. Where better do we have multiple examples that defeat is your road to victory. I’m currently watching the last day of the 1st Ashes Test between England and Australia. England have one wicket to take to win the game, and Australia need 79 more runs to win. For the first time in this game it seems likely that we can all say who will win. Yet from the very first day there has been so much excitement with many twists and turns. That’s what we love about sport. Anything can happen, and you never really know the outcome until that final whistle is blown. In cricket it’s the last wicket has fallen, or the last run required has been made.
I was watching ‘Andy Murray: The Man Behind the Racquet documentary’ on BBC TV earlier this week after Andy Murray had won the Wimbledon Men’s Final. The final words were:
“Defeat. Failure. Falling on your face, falling on your arse, are the only things that teach you how to win”. Kevin Spacey
I suppose you have to be British to realise the pain we’ve carried as a nation to see every year our very own Grand Slam Tournament being won by people from other countries than our own. For 77 years we have been unable to win our own championship. Every year, particularly during the Tim Henman period we believed that defeat is your road to victory
Andy Murray had come very close the year before. He was defeated in the Men’s final by Roger Federer . At the final presentation Murray during his interview with Su barker broke into tears, and he won the heart of our nation.
He demonstrated beyond a doubt that it meant so much to him.
Watching Andy Murray The Man Behind the Racquet showed that winning Wimbledon had been his dream from such a young age.
His commitment, hard work and belief stayed strong with him throughout his career. Defeats hurt but they never stopped him believing he would one day win, or stop him from doing everything he had to do to ensure one day he would taste victory.
Let his story inspire you to victory. Accept that defeat is your road to victory, and keep going till you are a champion in whatever it is you want to be.
p.s Australia need 30 more to win … will they never give up
