When the streak ends.
There’s a story behind that.
This is your daily message from Chad number 1232 to upgrade your mental game today by telling yourself a better story, because the most important story you hear is the story you tell yourself. This message is dedicated to Noah Shirey on his birthday.
Here’s the upgrade:
You may think a loss erases your record, but upgraded thinking knows a loss can refine it.
Here’s the story:
Yesterday, I told you your record is undefeated — that you’ve made it through every bad day that brought you to this moment, because a sense of failure is always based on the scorecard you’re using. Today, let’s talk about how to deal with literal defeat. How does one think through losing?
The most important match of Dan Gable’s life is the one he lost. Dan Gable never lost a wrestling match in high school. 64 and 0. Three Iowa state titles. Then he went to Iowa State and kept winning. Two national titles. He pinned most of the men he faced. By March of 1970 he had won 181 matches in a row. Zero losses.
He went into the NCAA tournament chasing a third straight title. He pinned his first five opponents. One match left: the final, at Northwestern, against a sophomore from Washington named Larry Owings. Late in the match, Owings led 9 to 8 on the scoreboard. But Gable had riding time coming, so he was really ahead. Then Owings caught his leg, took him down and put him on his back. That was four points. Gable escaped, but even with riding time added, he lost 13 to 11. A 181 win-streak broken.
Eighty-five hundred people had been on their feet the whole match. When it ended, they gave him a thunderous ovation.
Dan Gable was in tears. He called the loss crushing. He said, “At first, I couldn’t face my parents. I felt I had let them down.”
It took him about a month to get over it. He said, “My mother finally had to pull me out of it by giving me a long lecture.”
There’s an old line from Robert Green Ingersoll: “The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.” That was Gable’s real test. Not the final — the month after it. And he passed it — not all at once, and not alone.
He was back on the mat fast. Within weeks, he won the national AAU freestyle title. Then he rebuilt everything. In his words: “I made changes to my stance, my training, my technique, my thinking.” He said, “That loss alone virtually made me rise to a new level of excellence. I became a wrestler that I didn’t even know I could become.”
Two years later, at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Dan Gable wrestled six matches. He won all six. He did not give up a single point. Not one. A man with 181 wins learned the most from the one he lost. The 181 made him a champion. The 1 made him a wrestler he didn’t know he could become, wearing an Olympic gold medal around his neck.
Your loss is not the end of your record. It’s information. It’s fuel. If you let it teach you, it may be the most important match you ever wrestle. The better story to tell yourself is, “My loss is not my label. It’s my lesson.” This is how upgraded thinking deals with defeat. The right mental attitude learns from losing. Go get back on the mat today.
Tell me a story of a loss that made you better to fromchadsmith@gmail.com. Send someone a text and ask them, “What loss taught you the most?” Please like, comment, subscribe, or follow. Your engagement helps the algorithm and makes it easier for others to find these messages. You can get a free copy of my book, The Most Powerful Story in the World, by going to fromchad.gumroad.com. The transcript of this message and hundreds of others are always available at http://www.fromchad.com.
