Winners and Losers

A lazy, hazy gray kind of day. My back hurts, it's cold out but I wanna go and play.

Was out doing the morning chores yesterday and before I could get back to the house it rained. Does that mean it was a nice morning for a walk in the rain, or was it the universe deciding I needed a cold shower...

It rained almost all day. After making a loaf of onion bread I decided it would be a good afternoon to spend in the wood shop sanding the old cutting board I made years ago.

I've no idea why but while working an old line ran across my disoriented mind.

Winners never quit and quitters never win.

Although I believe it's a good line I don't totally agree. I feel it should be

winners seldom quit and quitters seldom win.

We all know quitters and losers who win things. We marvel at how that can happen to someone we feel is so undeserving.

Well that's just luck, but luck is something we can't depend on. Sometimes you get lucky but most times you don't. Luck also can not be depended on to put food on the table or a roof over your head.

The reason I say winners seldom give up is because I have learned during life that there are times it's best to give up. When you see there is no longer a point to doing something that's a reason to give up. When you find that you no longer enjoy doing something it's time to give up. When you find that someone no longer wants to be in your life it's time to give up.

But a winner never gives up on their ultimate dream. When things are going bad they get tough and keep pushing towards their goal. That is what makes them a winner.

Now I've spent the biggest part of my life being a carpenter. Building homes and business buildings, remodeling both, repairing both, building custom cabinets and some custom furniture. Along with many much smaller things that people would ask for over the years. Even some as gifts. So When I'm in the shop I seldom have much thinking into what I'm doing. My mind just flits into all kinds of thought.

Another thing that tripped and fell out of the recesses of my mind while there was how so many people say to someone with an idea that you just can't do it. It's a waste of time. Or they go on to explain just how hard it is to do something.

Well, they're words of discouragement. Words that are to often spoken by those that will never be winners. But they could also be words that keep the non winners from wasting their time. A quitter will become discouraged and give up.

When those words were spoken to me I got angry. OK, maybe bull headed. But I took those words as a challenge, as a dare! I set out to prove that the speakers were wrong. I had to make them eat their words!

Instead of letting those words discourage me I allowed them to encourage me.

I do not consider myself a winner. But I've done very well in my life and have a lot to show for it. I have a lot of things that many will only dream of having. I have a nice home and it's mine, not the banks. I live quite comfortably and now I have retired to my hobby.

I no longer have to get up in the morning to go to work, I want to because I enjoy doing it. It wasn't luck that put me where I am today. It was good choices of when to keep going in a direction or when to give that direction up and find another direction to focus on.

Heck, if I counted on luck I'd be broke with nothing. My luck has almost always been bad. My luck has left me in pain.

It was determination that makes some people look at me as a winner.

Now if I can go on smiling and have a good life I'm sure as sure can be that anyone can. So keep that smile on your face and get out there and do it!