Define-Yr-Win-art - 10/6/13

"How do you define your win?" by THLord Ian the Green.

NOTE: See also the files: How-2-get-2do-art, Your-1st-Evnt-art, Children-SCA-art, SCA-The-Dream-msg, Fndng-T-Dream-art, A-Peer-Within-art, A-Study-o-SCA-art.

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NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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To: SCA Newcomers list <scanewcomers at yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Defining your win
Posted by: "Ian Green" ianthegreen01 at gmail.com
Date: Sat Oct 5, 2013 6:57 am ((PDT))

How do you define your win?

This is a question that catches some people off guard.

You win when you come in first, right?

Well that isn't wrong, but there are certainly more ways to define your win
than coming in first place.

This is especially true for the novice and the inexperienced.  Chances are very slim you are going to come in first place at many or any competitions. This belief that the only way to win is to come in first is often a very real reason that beginners start but then quit because they are making the error of trying to compare their skill against someone who has been doing it for far longer.  And really when beginners and inexperienced people only define the win by coming in first place they in affect comparing themselves to those who have far greater experience and skill.

This is true if you are an artist, a craftperson, a martial artists or anything else.

However, even the skilled and experienced should probably expand their definition of what it means to them to win.  So what are some other ways to define your "win"?

- Learning something new.

- Doing something well you just learned.

- Doing something well you have been practicing for a long time.

- Coming to activity time/practice time

- Practicing

- Helping another learn

- Knowing when to stop and stopping.

- Letting go

- Keeping calm

- Getting excited

- Staying safe

- Having fun

- Participating in the competition

- Getting to talk to an important person to you

As you can see defining your win can take many different forms.  It all depends on what you want/need to accomplish.

Focusing on coming in first place takes the focus and puts it on results. Results are important but coming in first or not probably isn't the best way to gauge your results.  After all what if there were only three entrants (you being one of them) each of which only had been doing it for a couple of months. Sure you came in first and that's great but does that mean you are a wonderfully skilled at what you do?

Often the process is more important.  If we focus on the process and improving the process(es) of what we do the results will improve and likely they will improve faster than if we focus on the results.

I humbly suggest that focusing on the process is probably a better way to define your wins than focusing on coming in first.

THLord Ian the Green

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Edited by Mark S. Harris	Define-Yr-Win-art	2 of 2