MENTAL DIET: The One Thing That Changes The Quality Of Relationships

RELATIONSHIP GAME CHANGER

Imagine you are engaged in playing a football game and you are on Team A playing against Team B. And one of your team players who is a skillful player scores all the (4) goals and your Team (A) beats Team B. At the end of the game, the skillful player who scored all the goals begins to brag that all his Team players are losers that he is the only winner because he scored all the goals.  Sounds Incredulous!

The fact is that such attitude will alienate or cause friction between himself and his team players. The revealing truth is that when playing the next game, his team members will most likely work to frustrate his efforts of scoring goals for the team.

Let‘s take it from another perspective: your football team which is Team A is having the 15 minutes recoup after the first half of the game; re-strategizing in order to bounce back and win the game as Team B, led in the scores. One of the defenders of your team has a great idea that if suggested to the team lead and the players and if implemented could secure an outright defeat of Team B.

But he reasons within him, “I have an excellent idea that could make the team win but I’m a defender, I won’t score the goals. The spotlight will be more on the goal scorers. I will hold back the idea; with that nobody will have a chance to score.” Ridiculous! Isn’t it? Obviously, Team A loses out to team B and the Defender loses out too.

These scenarios play out in marriages; families; friendships; business partnerships; the workplace; organizations etc. People on the same team competing with each other, having an adversarial attitude towards each other; thinking that in order to win the other person must lose. However, they fail to realize that in a team, there is nothing like win/lose or lose/win-it is either a win/win or lose/lose; there can be no in-between.

In the game of life which is superior to all man-made games, there is nothing like win/lose or lose/win-it is either a win/win or lose/lose. In other words, to be on the winning lane of life, you must play the game of life in an honorable manner that you win with others; seeking to win at the expense of another is an outright loss in the game of life.

Consequently, how you play the game of life determines the overall quality or outcome of your life both in the short-term and in the long-term.