The above saying hit me dead in my eyes a few weeks ago and I must be honest, it has changed my way of thinking and I hope it will change yours. I noticed the conversations I was having with others, and most of them were negative in a way. People have begun to accept defeat. They have begun to accept the circumstances around them; however, I do not want to be one of those people.
I am sure you have noticed this time of the year when we are less than two months away from the end of the year, conversations are about acceptance. Accepting what the year has given us, accepting that there is not much to do about anything now & accepting that the year is coming the end. This is accepting defeat, instead of embracing the challenge.
As a business coach, a common mistake I found business owners making this time of the year is leaving everything for the new year. We fall under the same acceptance instead of being resilient. The hardest time to create new business is this time of the year. We accept this fact and then wonder why the new year sales are not where they should be. We tell ourselves we will wait until the new year to make decisions. Let business pause for the remainder of the year, then when the new year begins, we do not have the financials to support the decisions.
When we accept defeat, you stop the chance of challenges becoming opportunities for growth. When we are resilient to accepting defeat, we are enabling growth instead of being stagnant. Resilience enables a mindset of solutions and being adaptable. When we accept, we are not good at something, we do not challenge ourselves to become better; therefore, not pursuing it.
As I mentioned before, it was the conversations around me that made me realize I was accepting defeat. Your attitude towards new ‘challenges’ could affect the attitude of those around you. It could be your team or employees that notice you do not have the faith to believe before accepting defeat. It could be your family members who look up to you, who now believe that accepting defeat is okay. The unfortunate thing about this, is that, sometimes it takes others around us to reflect our attitude before we notice our own.
If you accepted the first time, we fell off our bikes as children, we would not be able to ever ride again – would we ever had those moments of riding in the park with friends? The first time you drove a car and stalled, you climbed out and never drove again? We do not accept defeat on the unimportant things, then why do we accept in the important things? If a soccer player had to accept that he would miss the goal before he even hit the ball, what do you think the chances would be that he would miss it? Accepting defeat will make defeat win every time. Your actions will always follow your beliefs. Next time, you find yourself accepting defeat, or being surrounded by others accepting defeat, remember, that is what you will get. You can change that. Before accepting defeat and getting defeated, accept the win.
