Defeat Is In the Air

There are times when I've felt like a loser: like I didn't know what to do, that I owed something to someone else, or "they are right and I am wrong." These are all ways that I've felt less than myself-basically feeling sorry for myself. Of course this isn't all the time, I'm like most others in that I have "highs and lows", but I have found something about those low times. When I feel like there is no hope, or I've screwed up beyond redemption, like some other is better than me or has "shown me up", it's not the end until I think it is.

What I'm talking about here is being in a state of helplessness, or feeling vanquished. The concept of defeat is only with in the acceptance of the confines of win/lose, or "zero-sum", thinking. One can only be defeated if one believes in it. When you refuse to stop struggling even though you lie broken and crying at the feet of those who wish you harm, when your mind is still saying, "I'll get through this, I can make it!", you are still winning. When you refuse to slink off with your head down, when someone has taken their best shot and you simply carry on, there is nothing of defeat about you. How can you be beaten when you don't give up? It is only in your attitude, thinking that "once X happens, then all is lost" is just a way of cheating one's self. In essence, the only way to be beaten is to think so; the only one who can defeat you is you. Once again, it is thinking that makes reality and truth.