Rules of Life, The, 4th Edition

RULE 4

Look from the other direction

A friend’s teenage son, who is quite competitive, had a swimming match recently. When I asked him how the main race had gone he replied, ‘I did really well. I came third, but I would have come second if I hadn’t messed up the start’. This delighted me, because he needn’t have taken such a positive stance. As far as he was concerned, he might as well have come second so he felt almost as proud as if he had. He could have said, ‘It was terrible, I only came third, because I messed up the start. I should have done better’. Lots of people would have seen it that way. But for whatever reason – call it teenage bravado if you like – he chose to look at it from the other direction.

And the result of his approach? ...