My son taught me a valuable lesson yesterday, although it was me who was trying to teach it to him, but hey. He was playing his house league game and did very well as a forward. Too well. He figured out that as a striker he is expected to get to the front and wait for a pass and finish with a goal. He loves that. The pressure to run a lot is off and he gets to celebrate a goal if he nets one.

The second half was different. He became the goalie but didn’t do as well. He wants to score and so twice he was so far up and out of position that the other team just hit the ball over him and it ultimately trickled into the net. 

Things like this bother me and I am trying to find a way to teach him this valuable lesson, the lesson that in life you are either trying to score a goal or you’re trying to win and they are not one and the same thing.

There is nothing wrong with trying to score a goal. As a matter of fact it is really difficult to win any game if you don’t, but trying to win is far better. It is better because it is a proposition that is far bigger, far more reaching, and far more attainable. A win gives a victory to everyone, not just yourself and it is easier to stop one talented individual than a whole team of less talented individuals. There is strength in numbers. There is great ability in doing the ordinary and that is a lesson worth learning.

I am confident that he will learn that lesson, and this is not about him but about me. Yesterday taught me that I have to look for opportunities in my life that help more people than myself. 

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I live a selfish life, all I am saying is that we don’t pursue are dreams as hard as we should sometimes because we think we are doing it by ourselves, but we’re not. Anything we do that is worth doing benefits others and other people will come along and help us get what we want, provided we are helping other people get what they want.

I think this is a very important lesson to keep striving to learn, at any age and at any time. Scoring and winning are two separate things. Having your dreams come true and having other peoples dreams come true at the same time as yours, is something completely different.

 

Photo credit: https://unsplash.com/@lostkids