Finding a Win in a Losing Streak

My teeth hurt. They’ve hurt much longer than the doctor said they would. I'm in the bathroom at Liberty High School, rinsing out the holes where my wisdom teeth used to be. As I spray water into the gum-lined voids for what feels like the hundredth time, a dad and his young son walk in.

The boy, no older than four or five, is bleeding from his nose and crying.“I hate losing,” he pouts as his dad hands him a paper towel. “This sucks.”He seems more upset about whatever loss he just endured than the actual bloody nose.

“Well, stop losing then,” the dad replies, matter-of-factly.

“It’s not fair. Losing isn’t fun, and it’s not fair,” the boy insists, tears still running.

“First of all, you’ve got to stop wrestling 15-year-olds,” the dad says. “And second, you can’t keep crying every time you lose. You’re here because of a choice you made. Sometimes you just have to find a win—even if you keep losing.”

The boy blows his nose one last time and storms out.

The dad, noticing me hunched over the sink for the first time, sees the situation and wisely decides that silence is the best option before leaving, too.

I look up into the mirror, jaw aching, and think, “I feel a lot like that young boy right now—stuck in a losing streak. What did he mean, ‘find a win’?”

The phrase stuck with me. For the rest of the day, I decided to focus on finding wins instead of how badly my mouth hurt.

The food in the coaches' hospitality room (even though I couldn’t eat most of it) was a win.

Our seniors staying to cheer on the JV team—even though they didn’t have to—was a win.

The tournament ending on time? Another win.

It turns out, there were wins everywhere. We just had to look for them.

We’re all bound to go through losing streaks in life. But just like that young boy, we can always find a win.Speaking of—later that day, I saw him wrestling the high school heavyweight from the team his dad coached. At one point, the heavyweight “tripped,” and the boy pinned him down. He ran to his dad, beaming.

He had finally found his win.

Fact

Research shows that people who focus on small daily wins build resilience and improve mental health over time

Action

Text someone close to you one small win from your day today.

Question

What is one "hidden" win from your life in the past week you may have overlooked?

Quote

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill