LIVING: Winning and Losing

Some people, echoing a simplified reading of the Darwinian concept of natural selection, have approached life as a permanent competition. One must move forward. Stand out. Win. Arrive first. Be above someone else.

Thus, almost any space can turn into a arena: work, studies, physical appearance, social relationships, and even the most intimate matters.

Having points of reference is a different thing. Admiration for someone, learning from their experience, and setting goals for ourselves can help us grow. The problem begins when everything is measured in terms of victory or defeat.

Competing, to a certain extent, can be healthy. It steps us out of our comfort zone. It forces us to recognize our abilities as well as our limits. It can drive us to study more, to work better, to learn something new. We can even compete with ourselves: beating a personal record, correcting a flaw, moving forward compared to who we were yesterday. In that case, the other person is not an adversary. They are a point of reference. And competition ceases to be a war and becomes an incentive.

The difficulty arises when that logic becomes a permanent requirement. There is always someone to surpass. Someone to imitate. Someone who seems to be ahead. And it is never enough. An overly competitive person can end up experiencing as a failure what is merely a circumstance of life. That is why one must also learn how to lose. Knowing how to do so with intelligence, common sense, and coherence.

A loss can teach us. It can show us a mistake, a limit, or a path that was not ours. Not everything we do not attain is a defeat.

Perhaps it is worth remembering that life does not have a general classification table or a shared finish line. There are moments to demand more of ourselves and others to pause. We can admire someone who does something better than us without feeling lesser. We can grow without turning someone else's step into a threat. And we can win without believing ourselves superior, just as we can lose without feeling defeated.

In the end, living is not necessarily about arriving before everyone else. It is also about knowing where we want to go.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff