I believe that giving your best effort is all that matters.
I do not think that winning, losing, or tying matters in anything that anyone ever does. When people give their best effort and KNOW that they could not have done any better, they are happy no matter the outcome. In school or in sports, I don’t care how I do compared to other people, I only care that the effort I put forth and the time I put in is the best I could have done.
I was in a soccer league when I was 12 years old. This was one time in my life when my belief really showed. My team was not very good. We gave a huge effort to every game we played, but did not win a single one. Some people would be very sad and disheartened to lose so many games, but all of the players on my team were okay with losing. This was because we all tried very hard and didn’t regret any of the losses that we had been served. If we all did not try during the many games that we lost, there would be many reasons to regret what we had done and why we had lost. When you don’t give your best effort there will always be questions like, “what could have been?” Ultimately, the main reasons to give your best effort are for pride and for closure.
People who do not give their best effort are generally slackers. When these people use the word “fail” I feel it is undeserving. The word “quit” should actually be the word used in this situation. I have a friend who fits this description flawlessly. In everything he does, he does not put in any effort at all. For example, my friend used to be on the hockey team at school. He was captain of the team and was very good. Three weeks ago he got kicked off of the team because he never went to practice. This is a perfect example to show how much effort really matters in everything that you do.