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Playing to win comes out of inspiration: Winning and losing is a part of any game. However, this quote is all about the purpose of inspiration and desperation. When we play to win, we’re energised by the vision of winning, joy and its surge. However, when we play not to lose, the motivation is through fear and ensuring not to be wrong. In a like-to-like comparison, it feels like playing not to lose creates an immense amount of pressure vs playing to win.

Meaning of playing to win comes out of inspiration

A good starting point to understand the meaning of playing to win vs not to lose is the difference between inspiration and motivation. Although they both sound similar, motivation relies on an external force. Inspiration is an inherent trait that helps you move forward. Motivation sometimes has the tendency to believe in external factors. Playing not to lose is one such external factor.

Playing to win brings out a confidence-oriented mindset where you’re only focused on the winning outcome. It pushes us to move forward with only success as a goal. It even enables us to take risks and perform in unexpected manners. In this case, the outcome is more about finding a route to win.

Playing not to lose, however, is guided by fear. It takes on a defensive stance and makes it difficult to take risks. This compromises one of the strongest abilities in your arsenal – the ability to surprise yourself and others. The unfortunate alliances in playing not to lose are anxiety, fear and the desire to maintain the status quo. In other words, you’re so concerned about making a mistake that you won’t take a risk at all.

Difference between Inspiration vs Desperation

It is interesting to see a play on words and the impact they make. Trying to identify more on how certain thoughts affect our thought process, especially when we are trying to do something which is quite challenging. The need is for a good dose of motivation which keeps us alive and kicking and some of them keeps us thinking. Trying out an analysis of this one

• Inspiration is energy, it is the surge, the rush of emotions, the drive, the push, the optimistic front trying to make things happen. It is strength to say the least, the strength which drives us forward.
• Desperation on the other hand is also action, but more importantly, the emotional standstill it puts someone through is quite interesting. The feeling of being low, tired, somehow making things happen since there is no choice. I’m certainly not saying it won’t produce results, it certainly will. But the question is at what cost?
• Both optimists and pessimists produce results. Some go to the extent of calling themselves realists. I have nothing against that, but the truth is each one of them produces results but a pessimist is someone who is the least happy about it. The path is of an equal amount of importance.
• The path is always a choice, it is a choice to try to win or try not to lose. Looking at win or lose, I would still prefer to say win or not win, I would certainly try to avoid a negative word in the thought process cos I would want to avoid even an inadvertent focus on it.

If the end result is not going to change, I would rather prefer being happy while fighting than feeling sad which emanates from the desperation. Being inspired seems the simpler path to take. Don’t you think? :)