LOSING IN THE FINAL
July 9, 2006 France missed the opportunity of becoming World Champions at The Fifa World all because of one man’s mistake. France has always been a force to reckon with in terms of football, and fans all over expected nothing but victory in their final world cup match against Italy, that I can’t clearly say wasn’t as good as France as at this time. Olympian Dion, Berlin was filled to its brim with 69,000 humans in attendance just to see the amazing wonders of France. 22 players fought toothlessly to prove to the world that they were worthy champions but as at 90 minutes, it was a 1 all draw which meant that extra time and penalties were inevitable. The Penalty Kicks were converted into goals and everything seemed to be going as planned until David Trezeguet missed the one that mattered. His shot hit the crossbar and unlike Zidane’s penalty in the first half, it bounced down inches the wrong side of the goal and France kissed the championship goodbye, what a blow!!!
One of the saddest and very painful thing that can ever happen to a human is giving his/her best and yet ending up a disappointment. Every now and then we feel bitter for wrong decisions we made thereby punishing or subjecting ourselves to extreme conditions. The holy scriptures in Proverbs 13:12 says “…hope deferred makes the heart sick but when desire comes, it is a tree of life…” which means that when we set goals and it doesn’t go as planned or other times fail, it causes catastrophic activities to the heart.
I remember some years ago when I was head over heels after admission into a tertiary institution, i almost lost my mind cool because I felt that my brain was faulty or maybe my head needed to be washed in a very potent river. “My mates were admitted into schools of their choice but me, a complete bag of waste, I was only good at occupying space…” this and more were the thoughts that engulfed my head.
Briefly, I want to outlist a few ways on how to keep pushing even when we lose;
- Develop a constant sense of dissatisfaction or discontent. All these can never be enough, yes we have conquered before but we can also remain conquerors in every sphere of our lives. Don’t ever feel that you have arrived, the day you do is the day you stop learning and you end up dead.
- Devote yourself to one thing. Like my father Johnson Abbaly will say, always channel your energy into one thing that you're very good at; we may have a lot of talents and gift but it's also necessary that you stick to one thing that brings expression to your other gifts. For example, I'm a sound/audio engineer, musician, producer… But when people ask me what I do, i just tell them I am a sound/audio engineer because this profession gives expression to every other thing I want to be.
- Direction. Forget things that are behind and be ready to move forward. People will lie about you, but you must move forward and let go because you have a destination and you can't afford to let other people’s opinion of you make you derail.
- Determination. As humans, we would get to a phase where things will happen and its going to feel like the whole world is crashing on us, but we should always have a strong resolve to never give up despite what is thrown at us.
Lastly, never put your heart in a state where its open to negative attack, guard your heart and mind jealously from all wiles of the enemy. Stay strong and victorious!
Desire
