Why You Should Change Your Perspective?

If you are a beaten finalist in any competiton, will you sink into depths of despair and yet telling everybody you are happy to be just in the final? Or will you change your perspective by thinking why you lose first and then ways to improve so that you can do better and win the trophy in the next competition? This is why you should do so.

In life, there are always competitions whether in studies, work and play. And in every competition, there will always be winners and losers. But know this, a winner cannot always be a winner forever and a loser cannot always be a loser forever. It all depends on what they do after the competition that matters most.

A winner can celebrate and be complacent after the party, thinking the whole world is at his feet and he will be champion forever. Or he can strive harder and do better to win the championship again.

Likewise a loser can be in total despair and keep thinking that the runners up is good enough for him. Or he can analyse either by himself or with the help of others he trust on why he lose and strive to do better by winning the championship.

With that said, champions are not just winners or losers but those who keep trying and improving. It is never easy to keep this motivation going as the path to success is always rocky and filled with hurdles and obstacles. But it is not impossible if you want success badly by doing everything possible to achieve it no matter how the great the odds are against you.

Take for example my favourite soccer team Manchester United.

Before the 90s, they only won the league title once in 1968. But after the formation of English Premiership and stewardship of Sir Alex Freguson in instilling discipline and determination to win at all costs into his team, their players developed a strong willing mentality of playing and fighting for the whole 90 minutes and injury time whether the results are in their favour or not.

It is this mentality that won them titles after titles. In 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009 and this year. Not just titles but FA Cups, Carling League Cups and UEFA Champions League which they won twice.

Even in years which they never won, they ended up as runners up by fighting their rivals all the way to the title.

Their best achievement was in 1999 where they won all 3 major trophies as in league title, FA Cup and Champions League.

In that very same year, they were a goal down in that memorable Champions League final against German club Bayern Munich played in Barcelona. Throughout 90 minutes, they tried but the German defence stood firm and seemingly invulnerable despite launching wave after wave of attack in search for an equalizer.

Everybody in that Nou Camp stadium – including the UEFA president – thought that Bayern Munich was going to win. So much so that the trophy was decorated with the German club colored ribbons in the 89th minute. At that same time, the UEFA president made his way down with the trophy, thinking that what he saw was a foregone conclusion.

Because of the stadium’s immense size, making his way down from the VIP stands to the field took exactly 3 minutes. And during this time, the president missed both crucial goals Manchester United scored to win the game. So it was hardly surprisingly when he arrived at the field, he was astonished to see the English players cheering while German players sank into despair at the referee’s final whistle.

Despite winning numerous trophies, Sir Alex Freguson was still not satisfied and continued to motivate his team. That explained why he remained in charge of the football club for so long.

In any situation, whether people around you are supporting you or not, that is not important. What is important is what you do that will get them to support you. Of course their expectations will be high but do not let those overwhelm and pressurize you into not making mistakes. Because if you do, you will make mistakes.

Instead let them be a motivation to you to succeed. Of course it is easier to say than do but you need to overcome that one way or another. In order to be successful like Manchester United whether as a team or individual, you need to change your perspective whether it is just you or everyone else thinking negatively that you are going to fail and lose.