Winning - Losing the attitude

Losing is the most important part of winning. Because we all lose, its inevitable. The ability to handle your emotions is what seperates the most successful and the moderately successful.

What most people overlook is that winning can be just as damaging as losing. Because its not the result (positive or negative) its the emotions attached to them. Do you feel like the "King of the Castle" after a good week? Then you're setting yourself up to be the "Dunce of the Dungeon" tommorow when nothing goes right. People create an emotional problem for themselves when they win and wonder where it came from when they lose.

Think of it like this. Your experiences are like a path with walls on either side, you walk alone up and down this path and the walls are just low enough for others to see your head. Then you have some success, and your immediate desire is to make yourself more visible to others, because after all what good is success if no one knows you had it. So you build yourself a mound on the path and your entire upper body is now visible to others. But here's the problem, now you're right beside a pit. The higher the mound, the deeper the pit, and you will have to travel back across this path.

This is just a game, hopefully we are not defined by this game. Win lose or draw we are still the same people. Dont let the game become the item that defines you. I am not "Kennedy - World famous expert handicapper" I'm "Kennedy - husband, son, brother etc...".

So how do you gain this perspective? Lots of practice and intentionally distancing yourself from the highs of this game and making it a secondary (or an even lower) priority in your life.

I also find setting a few rules to be quite beneficial.

For instance:
- Never play with anything you cant afford to lose.
- Plan your wagers and strategy before the race day begins - when you are rested, thinking clearly and not involved in the emotions of the race day.

Emotions are natural born tendencies, its almost as if our paths come ready made with mounds and pits. The most successful people are the ones have smoothed thier paths the most.