Ten Things Good Winners Do

I remember the speeches of my coaches who told us how to react to losing a game to an opposing team. An honorable person knows how not to be “a sore loser.”

But the spectacular victory of the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl yesterday raises the important question: what does it mean to be a good winner? Any of us can handle an accomplishment, a success story, or a “win” in ways that are helpful and honorable–or the opposite.

1. Good winners are generous. They look up, wide-eyed at what they have accomplished, but they know that the win happened only because of many others who have contributed.

2. Good winners have gratitude. They view the “win” as a gift that would not have been possible without the people in their past getting them to this place. They have gratitude for what parents, or past coaches, or good friends and colleagues did for them to help them get to a place of success.

3. Good winners give glory to God. Every human accomplishment you can think of points to that higher intelligence, that master designer, who is God. How does a wide receiver leap in the air at full run, moving dozens of muscles in perfect and slit-second coordination, coming down with the ball in the end zone? How is it possible for a master pianist’s fingers to fly across the keyboard, striking keys thousands of times in perfect coordination and intensity? How does a composer invent the music in the first place? How can men and women ride atop a controlled explosion which sends them into earth orbit? How does a surgeon cut flesh, and yet healing is the result? The evidence of God’s existence abounds–and oftentimes our “wins” show what God has done.

4. Good winners do not gloat. They understand they could have been the losers even if they had given an all-out effort. They respect the efforts of others.

5. Good winners are humble. They get an appropriate boost of confidence from the win, but they know enough not to get cocky.

6. Good winners evaluate their performance. They know that every victory has flaws within it, and they don’t miss the opportunity to learn from mistakes they made–even when they have won.

7. Good winners celebrate. Consider the feasts, festivals, and celebrations in Scripture. Celebration is more than a party. It is a way to give thanks, and to affirm hope for the future.

8. Good winners let other people celebrate with them. The joy they see in the faces of others becomes their joy–not as flattery, but as affection. Good winners do not keep their “wins” to themselves.

9. Good winners take time to rest. Whenever any of us have put out full effort to attain a goal, there is nothing wrong with being inactive for a while, both to learn from the “win” and to gain strength again.

10. Good winners get back to work. The “win” of one day is not the same thing as a lifetime of honorable work.

And then there is this:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 21:1-3).

What do you think?

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