Victory

Victory; according to the dictionary: an act of defeating an enemy or opponent in a battle, game, or other competition.

One would be hard pressed to find a word, a concept, that is used so often in our world of today, and yet is so misunderstood.
Now, don’t get me wrong. If you are engaging in a a game or any other competition, chances are you entered not just to be part of it, but also in order to give it your very best and win that game or competition. And, as long as this is the nature of the game, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!

One way of looking at the victory is by determining who or what we beat.
We may have won over our competitors, and yet the true victory was over some aspect of ourselves. Perhaps in setting a personal record, or by doing something we had always thought we would never be able to do in a million years, and here we have! Often those are true victories that are so worth celebrating!

But the victory ~ other than the win ~ also can imply defeating the others in the game, and in a sense that means making them ‘less’ than us ‘winners’. And yet, wasn’t their effort just a great (and perhaps even greater, depending upon circumstance) than our own?
The point is that even though we won the game, the runners up should not be defeated but rather be recognized and respected for their efforts.

Form this perspective it is totally okay to win ~ respecting the efforts of the other contestants ~ but as soon as we declare ourselves victorious ~ perhaps even stating that the person in second place is the first loser ~ it implies an attitude that makes us better than ‘them’.
It is a judgmental attitude that may gain us ‘success’ ~ depending upon the definition of success ~ in the short term, but that also pretty much ensures that at some future time when we become the first runner up, we may see ourselves suddenly as a loser. As we are not victorious anymore, we don’t amount to much. So in the long run, the judgement can get us into loads of trouble ~ even though we won the game.

So perhaps the greatest victory we can experience today is more of an inner victory. The victory of having true respect for ourselves and for everyone around us ~ no matter where they came from or in what direction they are heading. Without any judgement, or any ranking, doing as good as we can.

Being the best we can be, and respecting ourselves for our effort.
That is when we are truly victorious!