The will to win or an acquiescence to lose can each on their own become a closely held self-concept that is forever unassailable. In a process of learning the self-concept is formed—one sees themselves as either a winner and potential winner or a loser and potential loser. Once formed the reigning concept is highly resistant to change.
It is possible to equate quality of character with
a winning attitude. We say that a person
has character if they do extraordinary things even in the presence of
fear. Their will to win overcomes all
fear revealing inner strength. Often we
equate a strong will to win as an admirable characteristic. But we must remember a famous Nazi propaganda
film was entitled The Triumph of the
Will. It is clear that a winning
attitude while essential for character is not is not a sufficient condition.
The obvious question that must be answered is what
ultimate ends does a particular will to win strive to accomplish. In sports, motivation often comes down to
identity with a team. Perhaps it’s our school
team, our community team, or simply the team on which we’ve placed a bet. In war a not infrequent attitude is “my
country right or wrong, my country.” That
is, one needs look no further for justification than that it involves the
motherland. Yet, even so, there is the
haunting feeling that there must be complex psychological reasons yet to be
identified.
My own will to win was applied in attaining extensive
education and training. I can remember well
the desire to do extraordinary things even in the presence of fear. In a sense, there was a blind defiance of misgivings
that my objectives could be realized. But
the real character test is not whether I persevered in education; but for what
purpose did I persevere. When I consider
this, I’m afraid I can come up with less than stellar reasons—fundamentally there
is a possibility it was to prove to myself and others that I could do it. Beyond that, I really doubt that I had noble
ends. I did feel if I were successful, this
would somehow honor my parents. In the end,
like in most such things, my final motives were mixed and largely unexamined.
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