Here are a few thoughts about how we might measure success and failure:

~Thomas Edison said, “Failure is not the opposite of success; it’s part of success.” Did he quit trying to invent the light bulb after his first 1,000 tries? No. Otherwise, we would be living in the dark.

~While I don’t know much about baseball, I hear that if a player has a batting average of .300 or more, that’s amazing. But that also means that he/she was out 7 times for every 10 at bats. 

~If you play golf, you have a handicap based on your scores. Did you know that most golfers are expected to shoot to their handicap only 20% of the time?

How does any of this relate to bridge? How do we decide success or failure when we play this game?

First, we are always and forever going to make mistakes…..bidding, defense, opening leads, signals, declarer play, and on and on. Ask the best players you know if they have made any mistakes lately.

What’s important is not that we make a mistake. It’s what we do about it that matters. Here are some hopefully encouraging ideas you can try so you can to turn failures into successes.

~Ted Lasso says, “Be a goldfish”. That means have no memory of what just happened after a bad hand and move on to the next one. That hand is over. One of the better players at my club does that all the time. We hear “I am a goldfish” after he messes up and a new hand begins. 

~Someone once said to me that what I focus on determines both what I get and what I miss. For instance, if you make a bad bid, where is your focus? Can you look at what you could have done better and pat yourself on the back for learning something? 

~Look at your self-talk. If you ask yourself “Why do I always mess up on defense?” that is not a productive question. Instead, ask “What can I learn from how I played and do better the next time?”

OK, I am stepping down from my soapbox of positive thinking. Hopefully something here was helpful to you as you play this fabulous game called bridge.

Susie