Losing Is Not The End

<Trigger warning: Suicide>
In the previous blog,  we talked about how brutal sports can be.  This is the second blog reviewing the sports documentary “Losers” on Netflix, and ultimately a healthy perspective for when we don’t get the win.

In his first professional fight, he gets knocked out in the first round. He goes back to New York to recuperate, both physically and emotionally.
Somebody vandalizes a parking ticket and sticks it to his car.
“Michael Bennt — First Round Knockout?? Ahahaha!”

Already in a dark place from the humiliation of losing, Bennt had already been drinking his nights away in bars. One of those nights, he goes to his brother’s apartment, and attempts to shoot himself with a gun. But he realized he couldn’t go through with it.

He goes back to professional boxing, and runs through 11 opponents with ease, winning all of his bouts, and 6 of them by knockout.
 
He eventually wins a belt after knocking out heavyweight champion Tommy Morrison.

In the middle of his first title defense against Herbie Hide, he loses consciousness in the locker room, and ends up in a three-day coma.
 
When the doctor tells him he couldn’t box again, something that would have been devastating for most athletes, all he could feel was relief.

He was, finally, done.

Michael Bentt later on becomes an author, theater director, teacher, and a film and television actor. You can see him in a couple of boxing movies: Ali, Girlfight, Million-Dollar Baby, and even in movies that have nothing to do with boxing.

He says the knockout was the best thing that happened to him.

Isn’t it fascinating how life turns out sometimes? The reluctant boxing star now becomes a star in Hollywood. I mean, I’d watch that biopic.

In a culture obsessed with winning, what do we do when we don’t?

When we don’t win the competition, or when don’t get the promotion, or when we feel like we should be further along in our careers and we just don’t feel like winners in any respect?

He says the knockout was the best thing that happened to him.

Isn’t it fascinating how life turns out sometimes? The reluctant boxing star now becomes a star in Hollywood. I mean, I’d watch that biopic.

In a culture obsessed with winning, what do we do when we don’t?

When we don’t win the competition, or when don’t get the promotion, or when we feel like we should be further along in our careers and we just don’t feel like winners in any respect?

Of course, working hard and trying our best is always our first course of action. Knowing where we can improve, and challenging ourselves sufficiently are also viable ways forward — these can be seen in the other episodes. But as we learn from Bentt’s story, success can come in many forms, we just need to be open to explore them.

It’s important to remember that life is more than about winning a game, a championship, or getting ahead of all of your peers at work and immediately fulfilling your dreams of prestige and money.

Of course, working hard and trying our best is always our first course of action. Knowing where we can improve, and challenging ourselves sufficiently are also viable ways forward — these can be seen in the other episodes. But as we learn from Bentt’s story, success can come in many forms, we just need to be open to explore them.

It’s important to remember that life is more than about winning a game, a championship, or getting ahead of all of your peers at work and immediately fulfilling your dreams of prestige and money.

If we let winning define us as “winners,” we will also let losing define us as “losers.” Until losing not just becomes a mindset, but an identity. And that’s what’s harmful.

Rather than allowing winning or losing to define us, we have to discover our purpose because when we’re driven by purpose, whether we achieve the results we want or not, everything we have will always have meaning.

If we let winning define us as “winners,” we will also let losing define us as “losers.” Until losing not just becomes a mindset, but an identity. And that’s what’s harmful.

Rather than allowing winning or losing to define us, we have to discover our purpose because when we’re driven by purpose, whether we achieve the results we want or not, everything we have will always have meaning.

In Michael Bennt’s Wikipedia page, the first half you see a boxing career that began and ended with a loss that knocked him out. Then it’s followed by a series of filmography and television appearances.
Boxing was one chapter, and what came after was a longer, more prolific life and career.

You may be at a point in your life that you’ve failed at something you’d given your heart to.

You may even feel like you’re at rock-bottom or something that sure feels like it.

But, like Michael Bennt, losing is not the end of your story. He had no idea that that devastating knockout that seemingly ended his career and reputation- turned out to be just a page, and not even a chapter in his life.

You don’t know your future and all the chapters that lie ahead. Not like your Creator does. And when you put your life in His hands, you’ll find that His plans for you are bigger than you once thought.

’Til next time!