Fear of losing a game

Fear of losing a game

HOW  TO  OVERCOME  FEAR  OF  LOSING  A GAME.

The fear of losing at a game is nothing less than a trauma for professional players and that is probably known by all of us. What may be not known to every person is the fact that a loss in a game can be equally traumatizing for a tyro or an amateur. Loss is equally saddening for all of us in any walk of life be it a game or a competition and thus we feel afraid of walking into a competition or game.

The intrinsic connotation attached to the word “loss” can be blamed to some extent for such a fear but the internal fight with how we look at a game can be the deciding step in the fight to eradicate the fear of losing a game. Since the beginning of life on earth, humans have been afraid at one or the other step but did it stop us from advancements in numerous disciplines and our personal lives? No, and the same can be reflected in the 21st century where the same fear is riding a huge cloud in our minds.

The fear of losing at anything sort of forces us to rethink our actions and ideology about some particular topic but we do not need to be overly cautious with the same, what we need to do is to learn to tackle the fear arising in the subconscious and paralyzing our hands and feet so that we can make smart decisions and learn from the loss rather running away from the game.

We need to extricate the ghost of losing a game from our minds completely so that we can participate in competitions and games without the fear of losing and thus contributing the most to the same. In this article, we will see how can we succeed in losing the fear of losing a game and not losing the game.

Sports is a very favorite activity for all of us. Some people are passionate about sports and some of us are far away from sports.  Every individual has a different perspective about sports, for some people sports are the source of happiness and relaxation thing and some of us have a fear about sports. Every sports competition will have one fair result either we win that competition or we lose, this is the universal truth.

Fear of losing a game 1
Fear of losing a game, fear of losing in sports, fear of losing, fear of failure, fear

Some of us have a fear of losing in sports, and we know that fear is anxiety that controls the human mind and restricts humans to do things out of their comfort zones. This fear of sports is so deeply rooted in the human mind that we can`t even participate in sports. We have anxiety and fear that we can`t digest our failure, we are not ready to leave our comfort zones. We always overthink. We overthink like if I fail?? How should I face society?? What do people think about me?? All these negativity are stuck in our mind so we can`t even think positive within ourselves.

I have read multiple books on growing attitude and character. I have mentioned all the best books here: Recommended books by sudarshan purohit. I am sure it will help you a lot in becoming a better (more happy and successful) individual.

Fear of losing a game
Fear of losing a game, fear of losing in sports, fear of losing, fear of failure, fear

So we have to overcome our fear of losing a game. Here are the ways:

  • IDENTIFY THE FEAR:-

We have to figure out the thoughts which scare us and create fear about losing, we have to identify our fear. Is this fear all about that we are not confident about ourselves?? We are not confident about our sports skills?? We are scared about results??. Once we dig out, what all our fear is about then it will definitely help us to find a solution to overcome it. Many times you will find out that the root cause of the fear is just imaginary and going to the root cause would itself help overcome it.

HOW TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN YOUR LIFE
Fear of losing a game, fear of losing in sports, fear of losing, fear of failure, fear
  • THINK POSITIVE:-

All the fears are negative and selfish thoughts. When we play any sport and we think that what if we lose is a negative and selfish thought. We have to understand that we are not weak, we can do things beyond our limits which means we have to think positively within ourselves. When we visualized a positive picture we see ourselves In a comfortable environment. The best way to think positive is by visualizing that everyone is congratulating you as you have won. So it helps to our mind to get out from the stress and then with our healthy mind, we can improve our skills, build up new positive confidence.

Fear of losing a game 2
Fear of losing a game, fear of losing in sports, fear of losing, fear of failure, fear
  • STOP THINKING THAT WHAT IF I LOSE THE GAME: –

Many times we just indulge ourselves in the thought that what all will happen if we lose? This is a fear of uncertainty. Might be that you are good in the game but still you are just thinking that what if I lose. The best way to overcome this is to reason it out. Tell to yourself that you are good in this game and you are fit and you have practiced well so there is no reason for thinking that what if I lose.

Fear of losing a game 3
Fear of losing a game, fear of losing in sports, fear of losing, fear of failure, fear
  • Understand that we can only perform and results are not something which we can control:-

We have to understand that success and failure are not in our hands, all we can do is to give our 100%, be focused, be prepared and choose to think positively. It’s true that no one can stop us to do our best. And we have to gain the attitude that I will not care about results. I am just focused on myself. And if we can follow these things then we can totally win the fight against fear. No one can stop us from overcoming our fear.

  We all have heard about “ The Hockey Player Sandeep Singh Ex-captain of Indian national team”. In 2006, he was seriously injured by hitting accidental gunshots, At that time Sandeep Singh was almost paralyzed but his passion for sports took him back to the hockey ground. Because the reason is he diD not let down his passion for HOCKEY. He fought against his inner fear, and he jettisoned all the anxiety and negativity and all those things which could have brought him back to the darkness and then he shows up full of energy and confidence and he also appeared in the world cup playing for his country in 2010. He did it because he had a belief in himself.

Fear of losing a game 4

THINGS WE HAVE TO REMEMBER BEFORE AND WHILE PLAYING.:-

             Before Playing:-  Before playing on the ground we have to play with our mind against fear. Everyone is nervous about their performance and it`s natural. Everyone has that anxiety, but if we focus on that fear then we already lose the chance of the win. So before we go to the ground we must do-  1. Meditation

                                                        2. Relax ourselves by breathing exercises

                                                        3. Let go of everything and be focused on how you want to play it

                                                        4. Consistent in our practice. Keep practicing your best shots.

So when we reach the ground we will have balanced thoughts in our minds.

Fear of losing a game 5

             While Playing:-  When we are playing we already have tremendous pressure so that time we must have to be alert about everything. So while playing on the ground we must have to do:-

  1. Forget about everything and just enjoy the movement.
  2. Do not think about the results.
  3. Just do our best and focus on playing your shots right.

This let it go attitude reduces our fear by more than 70%.  So while playing we must have to do our best. 

HOW TO CREATE OPPORTUNITIES IN LIFE
  • THE WORD IS NON-EXISTENT

We all have participated in several competitions and contests throughout our school as well as college days, we should admit to ourselves that the fear of losing a game held us away from participating in many more contests in one way or the other. While we were notified about these matches, we were told that “Nobody is a loser if the participants are coming to learn.

Now when we think about the same idea, it is pretty clear that when we lose in a game even then we are learning something and that is what has been done wrong on our part and how it can be corrected for upcoming matches. So, in the end, there is no loser in a match but still, we are afraid of “losing” the game. the word “losing” is non-existent when it comes to matches and contests because we all get to learn something either by scoring lower than our opponent or by scoring higher than the same.

Think of the game as a journey, not a winning or losing platform, when we start to visualize the whole event as a journey, we will be automatically satisfied at the end of it because we completed the journey and if you go through the history of sports, the participation has been termed more important than winning by some of the greatest sportspersons.

  • STOP COMPARING

It is not surprising to find comparisons being drawn between several groups and people for several reasons, some of which turn out to be fruitful while the majority of them turn out to be confidence wreckers for some of the people. The same is done by us concerning our capabilities and performances and we start comparing them with other participants or our opponents.

This comparison based on records might be productive in cases where we may find shortcomings in our training or even our basic approach to performance but when it turns out that we are drawing comparisons out of anxiety and fear it is quite sure that we will end up discouraging ourselves so much that running away from the match might look to be the best way possible. Comparisons not only hide your true potential but also makes us believe that we might be the worse of the participants in a particular game.

The best way to stop the comparisons is to stop concentrating on the other participants ad rather start focusing on our strengths and the strategy that we have formulated for the games that we are going to participate in. The act of comparing our performance has been intrinsic to our thinking and will take some time before being wiped out our nervous system but in the meantime, the efforts to ignore the act of doing so should be coordinated with high self-belief and the spirit to learn from failures.

  •  TAKE ADVICE AND INSPIRATION

When we are going through a rough patch in our lives, we need an experienced person to tell us what should be the right way to deal with the problems at hand and how should we avoid a similar situation in the future. The same needs to be done in the case currently under discussion, we need to knock on the doors of elders and ask them what may be the right strategy to overcome the fear of losing out a game or a competition that we hold dear to ourselves.

There will be a stream of words coming our way the moment we accost the experienced people around us because the wisdom they have is immense and every bit of it will be translated into words by the same person. Once we have listened to a number of these elderly people, we need to sit down at a quiet spot and revisit all of these words from the beginning till the end.

Maybe a piece of individual advice will fit us and we will come out victorious in the challenge or on the other side of it, we may find bits and pieces in every piece of advice and then compile all of them into a single piece thus deriving the solution to our problem.

Taking inspiration from some of the great professional players in history will also prove to be immensely helpful in bringing light to the darkroom we are currently in. There are numerous examples where some of the greatest sportspersons have failed by a large margin but they kept their heads high and approached the next opportunity with more dedication and strength and guess what, they succeeded with flying colors thus teaching us that winning or losing will depend equally on how you play the game before it has started when compared to how decisive is your performance in the game.

  • STAY AWAY FROM NEGATIVITY

To state a fact, a coin always has 2 sides and so does the world we live in. While there might be people around us who are optimistic about us walking into the next match we are supposed to participate in, some of the rest might even be cautiously optimistic about the same but some of the crowd is bitterly pessimistic about our prospects in the next game or the future games. When we talk to them, they will spill a load of negativity on the table and put discouraging words to our head which will make us doubt our capabilities and eventually fear losing the game we play so passionately.

These people need to be dealt with nothing but balanced ignorance. If we continue to pay excessive attention to the people spreading pessimism in the people who are passionate about some profession or sport, we will be paving our path to the ultimate failure – escape from the competition. The sort of negativity these people spread makes us believe that running away from the game is the only solution left for the sorry state of affairs in which we find ourselves. Finding people with a balanced approach, the people who don’t shy away from pointing out our shortcomings but also don’t forget to praise us on our good performance is the need of the hour.

CONCLUSION

The situation in which a person is afraid of losing in a game is a situation of self-destruction and it will dry up all of our strengths and confidence that we have instilled in ourselves through years of hard work and dedication. Participating in a game means that we are not putting winning or losing as the destination but the act of learning is more important to us.

The professionals who earn their livelihood through the matches they play are not simply participating to earn a pile of money every match but to learn to be more dedicated, appreciative, hardworking, honest, and resilient while earning bread for their families. The same thought process should be imbibed by all of us in our day-to-day lifestyle so that next time when we are notified about a match or a tournament, a tremor of excitement originates inside us not a trepidation from the fear of becoming a “loser” in the same game.

Use the above-mentioned points in your next game and let us know if it worked or not.

Another blog which you can read: https://sudarshanpurohit.com/overcoming-fear-of-failure/

I have a YouTube Channel also and you can subscribe to it through https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYGdbB_F0qii4Zo_rn-rCyg/videos?view_as=subscriber

To develop a good attitude in yourself you can read one famous book by John Maxwell “winning with people” you can buy that book at Winning with people

You can visit my Facebook page where you can find all my videos and I update it regularly and we can discuss how to overcome the fear of losing a game: https://www.facebook.com/pg/betterworldsjp/videos/?ref=page_internal

You can connect me through my professional network on LinkedIn also here is the link and we can discuss how to overcome the fear of losing a game:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjpurohit/

You can connect me through my Instagram page where we can discuss more how to overcome the fear of losing a game: https://www.instagram.com/purohit.sudarshan/

1 thought on “Fear of losing a game”

  1. Pingback: How to reach consensus - 1 easy way

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.