I guess considering my topic, many would-be wondering why I would be using such a topic or perhaps why I would say we should celebrate failure, but that is the truth.
Many people are so bent on winning that they are willing to do just anything to win and not sit to analyze why they failed and what could be done.
Nobody wants to be a loser or a failure but if we think that we can only be proud of ourselves only when we win then we are saying that without a win, we are insufficient and not enough.
Two weeks ago, our church decided to organize a football tournament between the youths from different branches, and this tournament aimed to bring about fun and help us get to know each other on the field.
I am not a player but one of the days, my branch was to play and unfortunately, our goalkeeper couldn't make it to the field for some reasons best known to him and as a result, we had to substitute one of the players to become our keeper.
The guy who we asked to become a player is an amateur, although he is a player but that was his first time taking up the role of a keeper.
He tried his best but fortunately our opponents best us to a 3-1 score. It was devastating because the other opponents were not as better than us but because we did not have a good keeper, who could guard the post for us, it was easy for them to score.
Many complained which was a normal phenomenon, but I saw the game as a friendly game and to me, it doesn't matter if we win or not, what matters is that we did something.
Like I said previously, this life is all about winning even though winning is important, we don't have to base our lives on winning because if we do, we will always feel insufficient, not enough and frustrated any time we don't win but if we come to the terms that life isn't all about winning even if we wish to win, we will be happy whether we win or not.
As silly as this may sound, let us learn to celebrate failure, let us learn to celebrate our failures, even if that isn't what we wanted but being able to get to the point we got is a reason to realize that we aren't failures and we never failed.
A failure is someone who never tried, but it takes confidence for someone to start a thing or try a thing even though at the end of the day, we will fail.
Failure doesn't come to make us feel discouraged and incompetent, it comes to encourage us and to help us prepare our minds for the unpredictable. Failure comes to help us show us our wrong, where we left a loophole, were we did not prepare or do well and help us to know how to prepare for the next opportunity when it will come knocking at our door.
Every successful man here on earth passed through one or two failures and during their failing process, they learned life and realize that there was more to life than winning and that alone kept them moving until they were able to succeed.
Now, back to our football tournament, on that day, although we were not happy about the scoreline, we celebrated our loss, learnt from our mistakes, and came back home to work on ourselves for the next match.
Today, we played again against another branch and just in the first half, we started the ball with a 2-0 score although the other team was good because the first half ended in a 2-2 draw but at the end of the game, we went home with a scoreline of 3-3 draw.
We not only shouted for joy but we also pop champagne and celebrated our win.
That's the evidence of what our first failure can do. We should always learn from our failures and improve instead of wallowing in our failures and thinking life is all about winning.
If you fail today, it isn't the end of the world because in life failure is inevitable and those who celebrate their failure always hope for a better win.
It is good to win, but it is also best to realize that life isn't all about winning. Don't depend your life on winning because it only makes one feel when he or she loses, they are incompetent.
Do what you've got to do and when it is time for winning to come, it will come knocking at your door. Nobody wants to lose, everyone wants to win but nevertheless, anytime you fail, don't wallow in your failure, know your wrongs, accept it and think towards working it out, take yourself out, be happy for the stepping stone you were able to take, and don't forget that you can do better.
The Magic isn't in the winning, the magic is in you and me.