Integridad del cuerpo

One of the major differences between Winners and Losers is the way in which they view their own life situations. NOTE: You can expect people to influence YOUR life in much the same way that they influence their own lives. Here again, we have a strong argument for seeking out only

those people who are capable of influencing your “win factor” in a truly positive way.

You will immediately recognize a Winner as someone who is constantly concerned with possibilities. Losers, on the other hand, tend to be preoccupied with liabilities. Winners always have a realistic attitude toward what is involved. They will be quick to remind you that no one ever said it was easy or safe. It isn’t! Why SHOULD it be? We are not here simply to avoid pain and to enjoy pleasure. We are here for a purpose – to accomplish our life’s work, to realize our true potential!

And yes, there is a price tag attached. Winners are willing to pay that price in the interests of living life as it was meant to be lived.

“You win if the music is played according to your beat,” a Winner will say, “You lose, if it isn’t.”

Japanese philosopher Suzuki may have said it best: “I am an artist at living,” he once observed, “and my work of art is my life.”

What IS your life?

If you were to ask a lot of different people that question, the answers would probably astound you. The really astounding thing is that the answers themselves are usually so narrow. The reason for this is that we tend to equate our lives with whatever primarily dominates them.

“My work is my life” is a typical answer. “My family and home” is another. What is interesting about these answers is the tenacious tone in which they are invariably voiced. It is as if the person speaking were actually more determined to see life through than actually to experience and enjoy it.

Life was not meant to be a task! It was meant to be a period of constant discovery, a constant unfolding, even as the petals of a flower unfold and open themselves to the sun. Can you envision your life in these terms? If not, is it because your life has become so routinely structured that there is nothing left to anticipate or enjoy?

Perhaps you have stopped trying to win, have resigned yourself to existing. Like a sentence to be served until your death. What grim thoughts on such a bright and sunny day! Had you even noticed what kind of day it was? Why don’t you do that right now? Open the door and look outside. Does the day hold promise or only problems? Possibilities or liabilities? What will the mail bring – good news or bad? What will you do about it when it comes?

Try for a moment to see the day objectively, outside the realm of your own immediate thoughts and feelings. Take note of the reality that IS, the way it might appear to an alien being who had just landed on earth.

Such a creature would not see things in terms of what he “expected the day to be like.” His views and impressions would not be hopelessly clouded by the thought of having to fight traffic on the freeway, of having a tax bill to pay, of facing the threat of being demoted in his job.

He would simply look and observe what lay in front of him. Just as Winners do! Possibilities. Possibilities everywhere! A day of promise. A sprinkle of gold dust in the air!

Are you sure it is NOT that kind of day? Perhaps it is, and you have merely failed to see it. SEE if for once, and RESPOND to what you see!

Consider the fact that there might actually be some wonderful things waiting to happen to you today. Happy little surprises you hadn’t really expected or counted on. Remember! We don’t get what we want; we get what we expect!

One of the interviews I conducted while writing this book was with a woman who was kind enough to share some childhood experiences.

“It was during World War II,” she told me. “My parents ran a boarding house. The number of vacant rooms we had always directly affected the mood in that house. Times were hard and we needed every cent that the rent from boarders could bring. Late at night, it was not uncommon for me to suddenly ‘fall awake’ and hear the voices of my parents in another room. I would listen as they discussed the unpaid bills, and all the dreadful things that would undoubtedly happen to us. I could never bear to hear this last part, and would bury my head in my pillow rather than hear that we were to be tossed out into the snow. Interestingly enough, it never quite came to that, and we always managed to survive.

“During that period, there is one part of my life that stands out more vividly than the rest, perhaps because it was so uncharacteristically cheerful. It concerned itself with one of our female boarders, a young woman who worked in a local defense plant. She was dating an older man, someone I remember only as Jerry. Jerry was a nightclub singer who frequently entertained us with his lovely Irish tenor voice. The thing I particularly remember about him is that he always came into our house singing. On the worst of all possible days, when it seemed that there might not be enough money to buy another load of coal for the furnace, Jerry would suddenly come through the door, singing the most popular tune of the day. All in a moment, the somber bleakness of our lives would be swept away. I would find myself laughing and dancing with him. I never wanted him to leave. I imagined myself in love with him. For me, he represented all that life could ever be. Not only could be, but obviously was, at least while Jerry was there".

This story is interesting because of what Jerry actually represented. He was certainly more than just a person to this frightened little girl whose life had been adversely affected by poverty and war. He was the other side of the coin, the hope and promise of a better and brighter tomorrow.