Most people want to be WINNERS in life but the truth is that most people don’t know how to be WINNERS.
They think they know what it takes to win but then when real effort is required, they bow out and create a litany of reasons why they can’t get what they want.
Playing the Losing Game
I’ll admit that I used to play this losing game. When I was training for the Olympics, I had a number of reasons why I wasn’t the best on the team. I blamed my coaches, the officials, my teammates, the fans, the court and sometimes I even blamed the time of day that we played.
I called my losing attitude “reasons”. I had no idea how I could change the outcome of my life by changing the only thing I could—my attitude, belief system and work ethic.
When I began my coaching career, I played the blame game until I realized one day that blaming other people, circumstances and events wasn’t working.
A Change of Focus Turned Things Around
That was the day that I taught my athletes the importance of focusing on controllable factors. Instead of focusing on what we couldn’t control, we used laser focus on what we could control. Laser focusing on controllable factors shifted us from the victim mentality to the winning mentality.
When an official made a poor call, we didn’t focus on the call. We focused on how fast we could recover from the call. When a fan was rude, crude or downright mean, we didn’t focus on the fan. We focused on how great we could play so the fan’s words were empty. When our opponents played dirty, we didn’t point fingers. We played smarter.
The result of the shift was more than winning games; the shift resulted in a better life. I was happier, more content, less likely to feel hopeless and more likely to search for answers rather than looking for someone or something to blame.
I saw the same shift occur in my players as I coached them to find what they could change rather than be mad and angry at what they could not change.
One of my players, Jihan, made this mind shift after three years of playing sub-par basketball for me. When she finally decided to stop blaming me, her teammates and the officials, she became an All-American. I watched as teams tried to double team her, push her, and foul her out of the game. Nothing they did mattered.
NOTHING. She was completely unstoppable.
“Your responsibility to win in life is a decision—the decisions to change your thinking to align with the faith and belief you were born to win.” – Coach Winn
What mindset are you doing today that makes you unstoppable?
I present a variety of powerful leadership keynote presentations. If you or your company are not exhibiting championship qualities, email me at sherry@
