Life is all lessons…ignorance is not a destiny…
Let’s face it, there are many losers in this world, and the sad fact is that these people are not aware that they are. While stepping above failure is a prerequisite of success, wallowing in it makes one a loser. Everywhere we can see people putting much premium on their ignorance rather than advancing themselves through self analysis and action. Instead of making an effort on zeroing in on the causes of their lack, they prefer to be adamant in denying any responsibility for their unfortunate circumstance.
Perhaps you are not aware that you possess the characteristics of a loser. In your effort to make your life worthwhile, you aspire for things that will enhance your well-being. The problem though is that something within yourself is preventing you from attaining the life you aspire. Consider the following crippling traits that you may be harboring, and do your best to recognize and emancipate from them:
Fear of being vulnerable
Part of any pursuance for achievement is to let ourselves open to our vulnerabilities. This means allowing ourselves the experience of defeat, pain, heartbreak, embarrassment and any other uncomfortable circumstances we would rather not want to experience. Even a child learning to walk would need to fall many times before it succeeds in its endeavor. Without allowing ourselves to experience any fall, we won’t acquire the needed strength to make us grow and achieve anything we want in life. If we deny ourselves the stress of facing our own vulnerabilities, we will only tend to preserve our weakness, and such weakness will be our handicap in making any real achievement in life.
Slave to the expectations of others
All of us wants to fit in, but most of the time this does more harm than good. In our effort to find a sense of belonging, we have stifled the expression our own authenticity. As a consequence we become slaves of the expectations of others. Our inherent nature for creativity and boldness has been stunted because we’ve concerned ourselves too much to what other would say. A perfect example of this is peer pressure. Instead of alleviating our well being, we pattern our actions according to the mainstream norms of the people around us. No wonder few are exceptional in this world because few are those who dare to go against the conventional flow. If we truly want to make a difference in our lives we must learn to stand on our own and not be swayed by the mere opinion of others. A loser tends to hide on a flock, it is not aware of its own independence.
Stubborn adherence to false beliefs
One of the most defeating habit most of us embrace is our stubborn adherence to belief systems that serves no other purpose than to prevent us from expanding our horizons. It is ironic that despite man’s possession of intellect and free, he prefer to be meek when it comes to questioning the beliefs that have been indoctrinated unto him. As a result he is drawn downward further into ignorance. The fear of challenging our beliefs has somehow crippled us in terms of broadening our understanding. Without any effort on our part to be cynical about the validity of certain beliefs that affect our lives, we could find ourselves in the wrong path. It is rather foolish to believe that something is impossible rather than believing it is. This advance world we are living could not have been had the inventors and entrepreneurs—both past and present—satisfied themselves with the general belief of impossibility.
Habitually pessimistic
The greatest killer of any creative manifestation is pessimism. This attitude discourages any opportunity of making an effort toward certain endeavors. It prefers to look at the downside of something rather than its positive aspect. This typical characteristic of a loser inhibits itself from any productive endeavor. While everything around him changes, he continues to be sluggish. In the long run he curses life for all of his miseries.
Mistrust of one’s own capability
There’s no betray greater one can impose upon himself than the lack of trust on one’s own capability. A loser has no faith in his abilities; he measures himself according to the achievement of others and never tries to make an effort in exploring his own special gift. It is unfortunate that most people tend to envy the achievement of others while downgrading their own. They tend to believe that there’s unequal distribution of individual capabilities and there are those who are gifted. My dear readers, there’s no such things as a gifted person. Convention has recognized certain skills as ideal, and as such we put much premium on those capabilities as if they are the only admirable capabilities one may possess. The great people of this world have become who they are because they have never doubted themselves. Each of us holds the power to do great things, don’t be a loser and waste the opportunity.
Closed-minded
Nothing’s more annoying than dealing with a closed-minded person. No matter how much sense and logic we try to impart, they are somehow gifted with stubbornness. There are many agents that caused a person to be closed-minded: it could be their pride, arrogance, painful past experience, ignorance or plain stupidity.
Let us be careful not to limit our minds according to our own limited understanding. We need to accept the fact that our knowing will not always be enough and that we need to learn to open ourselves to higher understanding. No improvement will come to a person who has walled himself to logic and reason; his bigotry will be the cause of his own misery.
Cowardice
I find this to be the most despicable characteristic of a loser. Without a doubt, no achievement can be expected from a person who doesn’t have the courage to face any form of difficulties. Even unto himself he cannot stand on his own, he always bend at the will of others and possess no firmness of integrity. In this competitive world, the coward will always find itself in a life of squalor.
Being a loser is not an ideal condition of existence. Man has been bestowed with the power to influence everything in this world and it is a great waste if we don’t use such gift. But it is the first mission of man to know his weakness before he can realize his strength.
Finding it hard to even start with your goals?
Whether it’s breaking from poverty, getting your dream job, succeeding in business endeavors, losing weight, finding employment, getting a harmonious relationship, acquiring wealth and power, writing that bestselling book or any goals you want to materialize, there’s a force within you that will always inhibit you from achieving success. 99% of those who attempted with their goals fail, and the reason is their lack of knowledge about their very own participation in their failures. Our early conditioning programs us to fail but by identifying and overcoming them, success will favor your efforts. Let me help you in identifying them in my ebook below at a very low expense on your part.
Only if you find necessary
DO YOURSELF A FAVOR. GROW IN SPIRIT:
Pitfalls of instant gratification
Crippling habits people embrace
Why are we having problems with problem
How to unleash your true capacity
Are you calling me a loser, Walter!?
Just kidding, but it’s interesting to see some people who are absolutely oblivious to what they are putting out there in the world and are taking no responsibility for their actions. The victim mentality at its worst, especially when a little self-analysis and reflection would help those people so much. It doesn’t take a lot of work, but it does take work. As you say, learning to be more open-minded and to build your courage muscles is something that we all can do to improve our loves.
Another thought-provoking article.
Karen
Karen recently posted..What Are You Waiting For
Not so happy about the ‘loser’ label, but you highlight some very common struggles people have. We think the most important are the beliefs. Without judging oneself (yes, that means not calling oneself a loser!), it is very important to identify and then work to clear limiting beliefs. This is critical to long-term change.
HappinessandWisdom recently posted..Video about Happiness- Epicurus on Happiness
Walter: As always … great information and insights. I definitely have no interest in being a loser
I really liked what you said about taking advantage of all the amazing power and ability we have to impact and change the world.
Sibyl – alternaview recently posted..30 Things I Wish I Knew Earlier in Life
Hi Walter,
Anybody still alive? I am, barely!
The thing is who doesn’t have at least one or two of these “treats” at some degree? And to be honest, I do, so the problem seems to be mostly the capability of honesty to recognize and accept the existence of the problems and start working towards fixing them or changing some behaviors and attitudes in order to progress.
Great post! Every person should read it, independent of if they are trying or not to improve themselves in their lives.
Raul
Alien Ghost recently posted..Being Together
Hi Walter,
This post has a great title!
Actually, this is very useful as I suspect most people exhibit at least one or two of these behaviors every now and then.
Of course, identifying them in our own lives is likely hard. For me, I have a very hard time understanding closed-mindedness and stubborn adherence to any beliefs. I suppose that means that I have a harder time with people who are unwilling to change even if they know they should.
This one will be printed. Very nice idea Walter!
Have a great day
mark recently posted..The Latest Thing To Solve All of Your Problems
Walter, I think being forever stuck in pessimism is one of the biggest things that holds folks back.
That pessimism is a breeding ground for the self limiting beliefs you mentioned as well.
Great post and thank you.
This is a good one Walter. I often remind myself and others of my mantra: You are marvelously made and destined to win at WHATEVER you set my mind to.
You can set your mind to being a loser and you can win at being a loser.
OR,
You can set your mind to being a winner and succeed at that.
rob white recently posted..What’s it Take to Master Life
Hi Walter,
Thanks for sharing this wonderful article here. I would say that, some of us are still a loser because of “FEAR”, We live in fear; work in fear; we walk in fear; we talk in fear.
We move through life from one fear to another, crushed beneath the weight of a woeful exstence.Fear is at the root of all our problems.
Swami Vivekananda quote, “We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.”
Great post!
Valentine Belonwu recently posted..What Are You Willing To Risk
I really enjoyed this post. You covered some of the biggest man made barriers to having a great life.
“Looser” is not a word I use. I tend to feel that people make the best of their lives with the information and life skills they have. However thought provoking posts like this are a gift, opening up the idea of other possibilities.
Marion Anderson recently posted..Choose the best Environment for you
[...] #5. 7 characteristics of a loser [...]
Such a pleasure to read this post Walter and recognize a kindred spirit. Of course I already knew that because of the very kind and supportive comment you posted to me first thing this am.
I don’t know of any greater joy than discovering others who also honor
the truth at the core of our being.
And what would the dominant characteristics of that spirit be?
Why, Courage and integrity — just as you say — the theme running all through your great post.
So glad to be in touch with you Walter.
Walter,
Very nice post, it’s crazy how powerful our mind can be.. I think people who live in fear and stuck in pessimistic are a bit depressing. The world is an unfair ground and most winners just never stop evolving no matter how hard they fall. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Walter for sharing this great article. At times no matter how successful we all are, there are times when we all can feel like losers.
Being a loser is a type of lifestyle, and we can reverse them as well. All that you have mentioned can be reversed.
I think one characteristic of a loser is that he always uses the past to dictate his future. Which is similar to beliefs.
Hi Walter,
This post has a great title!
Actually, this is very useful as I suspect most people exhibit at least one or two of these behaviors every now and then.
Of course, identifying them in our own lives is likely hard. For me, I have a very hard time understanding closed-mindedness and stubborn adherence to any beliefs. I suppose that means that I have a harder time with people who are unwilling to change even if they know they should.
This one will be printed. Very nice idea Walter!
Have a great day
This post reminds me of the book, People Are Idiots And I Can Prove It!
It’s a real shame that some people don’t even recognize that they’re doing a harmful thing to themselves that make them more subject to being somewhat of a loser.
Best solution is to find out if you are one and quit doing stupid things?
Good post here!
Eric recently posted..Blogging Better- The Two Simple Ways To Do So
We are all on different levels of learning. What you call a loser I think of as a person who is simply at a different place in their journey. People are not losers as you state, they simply have not learned the same lessons as you.
Mark recently posted..Remember You Are A Visionary
Hi Walter,
What an interesting post. I think we all exhibit some of these qualities from time to time, but in my eyes what makes a loser is someone who fails to admit it, and therefore fails to try to do better. I am certainly not always the person I want to be, but I recognize my mistakes and make huge efforts to improve. Unfortunately a lot of people in my life are content to turn a blind eye and continue doggedly down a path that is getting them nowhere. Another commenter mentioned Larry Winget’s book, and I have to agree! It all comes down to whether or not people have the courage and commitment to change, or not.
Nice article, most important characteristic which differentiate loser from a winner is that winner is always optimistic while loser is pessimistic.
Vinish Parikh recently posted..Primary and Secondary Market in Stock Market
Really inspired on you blog, Its like read out a self inspirational book and it reminds me the author Robin sharma. Also i jus wanna wish you congrats that your blog got top 10 place on brain list (blog engage). your blog deserves it obviously.
Hi Walter
Very pertinant. I think being positve is an essential. Moving from a negative to positive mindset immediatly changes the aspect of any problem we may face. Making sure we work on our weakness at the same time as recognising our strenghts.
Without over analysing, positive action is important.
Vince
Vince recently posted..Know your song well
Maybe you should edit the webpage name 7 characteristics of a loser | LionSlinger.com to something more better for your webpage you write. I loved the the writing however.
You cover the topic very well.
Wherever we at the moment, if we have had the opportunity to decide, we are largely a product of the decisions we have made in the past. (Some of them may have been forced on us by circumstance.)
However one other point you might care to consider further is that in a number of our societies we sometimes provide too much support too easily for some, but not all, of those who fall on difficult times. I think too much of this destroys initiative in many.
How often do you hear the comment – The government should do something. Or folk just look for some form of financial assistance straight up.
There will always be worthwhile and necessary reasons for support but our modern way of life where we avoid risk at all cost has largely smothered the innovative spirit