According to CNN, there are approximately 2,850 athletes competing in the Olympic Winter Games. There are 98 events, meaning that there are 294 medals available to win. Many athletes compete for more than one medal, in different distances or team and individual events. But even if more than one medal is available, the chance of winning one is relatively low for so many athletes.

Ok, great. What does this have to do with parenting, Katie? Not everyone is obsessed with the Olympics like you are.

Fair enough. (Because I am pretty obsessed)

I think it can be said that Olympic athletes are some of the best prepared people in their respective sports. They train exhaustively, sacrifice a lot and often have intense focus on their sport and their goals. Even with all of this work, they still aren’t guaranteed gold and accolades or even the opportunity to attend the Olympics if they fail to qualify. They work incredibly hard for, sometimes, no tangible return.

There’s a lot of competition in our world. Soccer games, having the highest GPA, getting into the best school or college, winning the Curling championship. Unless your kids are very lucky and hard-working and motivated (and even if they are these things all the time), they are going to lose at things. You try beating your older brother in a race you didn’t know was on until he yelled, “Last one there’s a rotten egg!” Bah!

I guess the thing that makes Olympic athletes able to succeed is their ability to get up and try again even after they lose. Again and again and again. Losing is something we have to learn to deal with much more so than winning. Winning doesn’t teach you any lessons; it just gets you a celebratory pizza.

And while resilience and gumption are both stellar lessons to learn from all the losing our kids will do, there might be an even bigger lesson to learn…how to be happy without winning. Learning to being contended when you don’t have the best of something or can’t get everything you want or are disappointed when you fall short of your goals is a super, duper tricky thing to do. But since this is where 99% of the world population lives, there’s something to be said for starting early. So, can you be satisfied with coming in 4th? Or losing altogether? Or not getting into the college that you had your heart set on? Or making an adjustment to your goals based on…reality?

Like so many Olympic athletes, we learn to say, “I’m just so honored to be here.”