Sometimes you have to face defeat in order to learn. I have written several times of my life growing up but this time I would like to emphasize a particular loss.
In the third grade I had been caught outside in the playground ruffing it up is the way I think the teacher described it. She brought us in and to teach us a lesson she brought both of us before the class. When the student that had been fighting with me outside stepped around the teacher I hit him and knocked him out cold.
I saw that and figured I was more than I was but I started boxing in the ring and I fought many of times whenever I could and I eventually got to the point where I was just about to become a professional fighter. My dad gave me some advice that I thank God today I heard and accepted it. But not when he gave it to me it took a little time for that to get through the tangled mess I had thought to be my future. After telling me I was good as a fighter but not good enough to face the very best and with those that were very good those like me would be their sparing partner and in the ring I would eventually find defeat it would be a loosing battle before it could start my dad pointed out.
I later fought for the unlimited weight in AAU boxing in Salt Lake City. I got the stuffing beat out of me but what my whole point of this is I had to face defeat in order to learn. I was not beat I was knocked out of the ring three times the last time I caught the bottom rope of the ring on the way out and it caused me to slam against the supports around the ring adding more bruises to my battered body. Had I won that fight today would be a completely different world. That defeat taught me a lot and I had to loose bad to get it.
When I watch some of those who beat, push and mistreat others I wish sometimes they would find what I found in that last fight. Someone should knock them out of the ring. But know this as we go through life those fights that we loose can have positive results the same as mine did me.
It is wise when one can read and learn but most of us have to be whipped in order to find what is necessary to learn. Know this a loss can be more beneficial than a win if it is meant to be.Β My stories hopefully will put light on a subject that may or may not effect you but then there are those out there that has to hear and they will learn because they want to learn. One thing is perfectly clear in my mind you cannot teach anything to someone who believes they have it all or know it all. Sometimes humble has to be forced and the fall from ones mind to the canvas is a long way.
Just know this a loss is only temporary it does not have to be accepted but it most times it must be experienced to do any good.
A Messenger,
Verl K.
Verl, this is not to flatter you. Long before I met you, I taught my son that life is like a boxing ring β the fight is only lost in the last round, in the last minute. He has taken that to heart, and in his 17 years he has never given up.
I adopted the same philosophy for my own life: I donβt give up easily.
And you are right β people need to face defeats in order to grow stronger. Not everything in life can be winning; frustrations also shape us and prepare us for whatβs ahead.