{"id":872,"date":"2018-12-19T10:44:36","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T15:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/?p=872"},"modified":"2018-12-18T10:48:27","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T15:48:27","slug":"first-place-is-overrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/first-place-is-overrated\/","title":{"rendered":"First Place Is Overrated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Image
Image from Etsy. You can order this item here:\u00a0https:\/\/www.etsy.com\/listing\/621759371\/funny-you-tried-trophy-gag-trophy-funny<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

First place is overrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have never subscribed to the philosophy that not winning is the same as losing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vince Lombardi said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that\u2019s first place. \u2026 There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong. Winning is great. But, it is not everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My philosophy? There is a lot of money to be made in 2nd and 3rd place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look at the payouts for a pro golf tournament. Sure, first place takes a much larger purse. But, there are loads of players earning a darn good living despite never having won a major. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Steve Stricker. Steve has never won a Major. However, according to Golf Monthly<\/a>, as of December 2017, his career earnings were over $43 million. Still want to call him a loser?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, the greatest disservice we can do to our kids is to teach them that not getting the first place trophy makes them a loser. Yes, strive to be the best you can be. No, do not give trophies for showing up. But, learn to value yourself for more than a comparative ranking against others. The only ranking that matters is what you do vs what you are capable of doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this predominant philosophy of you either win or you\u2019re a loser, too many people stop trying. At some point you realize you\u2019ll never get the first place trophy, so why even bother?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some people, they never even start down a path. Others stop doing something that brings them joy because they don\u2019t want to be viewed as a loser. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia Cameron, in her book, \u201cThe Artist\u2019s Way\u201d<\/a>, encourages the reader to, \u201cgive yourself permission to do something poorly<\/em>.\u201d (paraphrased)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Julia writes, it is only by being willing to make bad art that we can learn to make good art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it is with anything. We must be willing to fail in order to learn to succeed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, in the context of the topic at hand, we must be willing to lose in order to have the chance to win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do not measure your success as a relative measure against the accomplishments of others. Rather, measure your success as a relative measure against what you know you are capable of doing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First place is overrated. I have never subscribed to the philosophy that not winning is the same as losing. Vince Lombardi said: “There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that\u2019s first place. \u2026 There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for … Continue reading First Place Is Overrated<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[55,53,54],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":875,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions\/875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/WorkShouldBeFun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}