Defeat cannot exist except in terms of success and failure.

Sense of defeat is nothing more than a misbegotten result of setting up measures and then not reaching them. You have bought the idea that there are measures you must meet. And if you don't, you are convinced you have failed. Failed what, I ask.

Not only do you meet defeat, you keep setting the limits higher. You bet against yourself. Once a B in algebra was wonderful, but now you are cast down unless you get an A. Truly, tell me what depends on your achieving these arbitrary limits?

Are you aware of the energy that you divert into such games?

When you were lame, you were happy when you could limp a step. When you could walk around the block, you lamented that you could not run. Then you lamented that you could not run a race. And then you lamented that you could not win it.

What is so marvelous about running races? What is so wonderful about winning? What does this so-called winning change but your satisfaction with yourself? Honestly, you would think that your life depends upon your winning something. How is winning more momentous than not winning? You whip the horse you ride. What then?

A man with a crown on his head is the same man without the crown. A king is king with or without. Although a crown may dub a man a king, the crown does not create the man. A crown is only a symbol.

At least a crown is a commonly understood symbol. But what are winning and losing symbols of?

You are good at accepting the concept of defeat, but not so good at taking it in stride. Compete less.

Let your motivation be inner. Race for the sheer love of it.

Life is not to be won, accomplished, overcome. Life is to be lived as you go along. No longer put up these arbitrary gauges. They don't set you forward. They hold you back. Even when you win, you are in an awkward place.

You have such an imagination that you think winning (or losing) makes a difference, but they are not earth-changing changes. They are not changes at all! They are just different labels put on you. Don't put them on yourself.

Winner and loser are both false names. They are insignificant. Win or loss does not touch your truth.

If you are first in line, it only means you are first in line. If you are last in line, it only means that you are last in line. Turn the line around and first becomes last, and last becomes first.

If you are a scholar, you are a scholar. Grades did not make you one.

If you are naturally blond, you are naturally blond. Approval did not make you blond. Nor did disapproval.

What you are, you are regardless of score cards. What you are cannot fit into a score card. Why then keep score?

Can you not be as pleased with yourself as much one day as you are another?