Winning is living...

A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning — Billie Jean King.

Billie Jean King, an American tennis player, is somebody who has enjoyed winning as she was also the former world number one and has won many Grand Slams.

Read her statement again and it is amazing when you realise the depth. Once you are at the top one is afraid of losing that position. What others want is that position, but do they always think of winning? In what intensity?

Do others focus on the champion’s qualities or do they work on their own weaknesses?

Are you performing better than yesterday. A champion being afraid of losing is easy to understand but the second part of the statement - ‘Everyone else is afraid of winning,’ is a bit tricky.

Are we afraid of winning?

How often do we believe in winning?

And how often do we think about what happens when we win.

There is one factor and that is, of course, skills. Skills enable us to win. While we might have an element of in born talent, it is skill that sets one apart and in order to achieve skills there is no other way about other than practice - practicing with discipline.

What does practice do?

Practice is actually an opportunity to keep trying. And then you notice you have got it.

It need not be tennis or any form of sports but anything in life.

Life is not all about winning, some might say. And it is not about competitions. Life remains to be challenging and if one has not been taking up challenges then that person is definitely missing out on life. There might be areas that might not be of your interest and that is understandable. But how often are we walking away from an opportunity simply out of fear?

Of course Billie Jean went on to fight gender inequality especially in pay and fought to reduce poverty among women.

Life is about knowing what you want in life. Is it for your betterment and for the betterment of the society?

This very thought often helps us in determining our goals.

Even when we know what is good for us we are lost in procrastination and unable to achieve what we must or ought to. And the sad part is we never get our time back. As we grow we are not too much into taking advice from elders and we move with our thought process that are often rigid. By the time life teaches us our lessons, most of our loved ones are gone and we are left wondering with the thoughts starting with, “If only..”, thinking about all those moments that could have been wonderful, but instead was spent on complaints and arguments.

Life is precious and quite often people are questioning themselves, “Am I taking life too seriously?”

The trick it seems is to get the right balance. The right combination of relationships, work, fitness, play, emotions, knowledge and spiritual path. An imbalance in any of these areas tend to create stress sooner or later.

Contributing to the society also brings about a sense of satisfaction, which is why there are so many volunteers in the society. Where did they have that urge? Is it developed or inborn trait?

Our environment shapes us so it could have been an inspiration that someone set an example or something that we have read about and had been motivated. But what keeps us in that space is the satisfaction.

Most important of all elements is the practice of gratitude. This practice not only gives us an inventory of all our blessings, but also to recognise them.

Satisfaction leads us to happiness. Happiness can be channeled to creativity that can be a lot of opportunities for others. You can be a winner each day.