Reframe Your Losses: Why Being Good Enough to Lose is the Key to Success

Where Are You Willing to Lose in 2025?

"Reframe Your Losses: Why Being Good Enough to Lose is the Key to Success"

I have to admit, 2024 felt like the universe was conspiring against me. It seemed that every move I made toward my goals was met with great resistance.

I fell into what Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan call The GAP.

To summarize the concept from their book, The Gap and the Gain:

• A person living in The Gap constantly measures themselves against where they want to be, focusing on what they don’t have and what is missing.

• A person living in The Gain measures their current self against their past self, focusing on accomplishments and progress made along the way.

Even knowing this concept, when reflecting on 2024, I still feel like I’ve spent more time in The Gap than The Gain. Many of the goals I set out to achieve didn’t happen. While they were lofty, that’s no excuse—I need to make real progress.

A few weeks ago, I watched a short video of Denzel Washington, arguably one of the greatest actors alive today.

He said something that struck me and stayed with me:

“You have to be good to lose.” Denziel Washington

I sat with that for a while. It was such a unique perspective that I had to digest it fully.

Washington mentioned that Meryl Streep has lost the most Oscars—around 21.

Although he was talking about the Oscars, I started thinking about this in a broader context.

Where are you losing? Where am I losing?

And I don’t mean sitting on the sidelines, avoiding challenges, or playing it safe. I mean where are you putting yourself out there, going for it, and still losing?

To lose an Oscar, you must first be nominated for one. If you’re not even nominated, you’re just acting—doing the work, sure, but not at the level required for that recognition. Putting together a piece of work good enough to even be considered for an Oscar is an incredible achievement. Even if you don’t win, you’re still very, very good.

This made me think of the Buffalo Bills, a team that made it to four Super Bowls in a row but won none of them. No other team has made it to the Super Bowl four years in a row. Yet they’re not celebrated because they didn’t win. If they had won just one, we might call them one of the greatest teams ever. But even without a win, their accomplishment stands as unique. At least, as of the time I’m writing this article.

You have to be “Good To Lose.”

This phrase has completely shifted how I view 2024. I’ll write more about this perspective in the future, but for now, here’s my challenge to you:

• Where are you willing to lose in 2025?

• Where are you willing to become good enough to lose?

• Where are you willing to push yourself to failure?

Pick one thing.

Write it down.

Reframe 2024’s Challenges and Missed Goals
Compare your January 1, 2024, self to your January 1, 2025, self. Look at how your life has changed.

What do you know now that you didn’t know then?

Where have you gained in life?

If you want deeper insight into this mindset, I highly recommend reading The Gap and the Gain.

Here’s to your next loss.

Until Next Time…