Winning Is A Habit,…Unfortunately So Is Losing

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I was sorting and straightening my computer files recently when I came across this article I had typed up while I was flying back to my home from a rather large business convention meeting I attend every December. The location of this convention varies annually but its importance and content remains unchanged as time goes by each and every year. Although I wrote this article in December 2014, its subject matter is as relevant today as it was three years ago when I typed it.

By Line: Row 20, Seat C, Southwest Airliner 737 in route from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Spokane, Washington.

Once again I find myself on a airplane flying from a huge Business Convention at the happiest and merriest time of year, December 2014. This year’s trip to this self same annual convention marks the 36 consecutive year I have attended this function. Longevity is always a by product of total commitment.

I find myself asking the same old questions that continually bounce around between the ears of highly successful people. Questions that rarely, if ever, come into the thoughts of those folks who fail, who give up or who quit performing the required work ethic needed to accomplish their previously chosen road to success and it’s related benefits and rewards. I am always amazed at how little most people value themselves,…at how unconfident most people are in their own God given talent and abilities,…and at how half-heartedly they perform required work tasks that will give them precisely what they are and have been looking for in life.

Now I plan to throw “strikes” throughout this discussion. Not in an attempt to hurt anyone’s feelings, but rather to wake up some of the readers or listeners and get them moving in the right direction towards their floundering dreams and goals. A journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step,…after which must be followed by the second, third, fourth, fifth, and on up until the 999th step and at last the 1,000th step—if the journey is to be completed!

The ongoing daily continuous work habit required to produce desired results must be in place at all times…whether you are seeing any significant results or not. The general rule of performance is this: No breaks, no sabbaticals, or no vacations can be allowed or permitted if they are intended to come to your benefit,…before you complete your mission.

I must tell you,…as a former State Champion sprinter,…in all of the track meets in which I participated,…all of the awards were given to the athletes AFTER the race was run,….never before or during the competition. All successful people focus their attention and keep it focused on the finish line, the end of the race—on the goal. Only the ones who lose the race ever permit their thoughts to be distracted,…until after the race has been run and won.

The same general rule of winning applies to all competitive efforts, regardless of the arena of competition. Attention to details is critical. Peak performance is necessary if one expects to win the race. Any and all obstacles must be overcome, distractions must be eliminated or ignored, and unneeded extra steps or procedures must be cleared out of the way,… if you are to win your race. All excess baggage that is hampering or hindering your performance must be jettisoned from your life, if your intent is to win.

Advanced Preparation is the real key to winning. Almost always the winner is the one who is best prepared to play the game or run the race. It is this person, the one who is best prepared to win,…who almost always winds up winning.

So with all of that in mind, let’s concentrate on advanced preparation. If you plan to win:

  1. You must desire to win this competition with all of your heart.
    Participating just to be part of something greater than yourself is never
    enough. While you may “make-the-team” with this sort of half-hearted
    commitment, you will never win the race by just being on the team.
    You must continually contribute and do your share of the work if you
    plan to win.
  2.  

  3. You must fervently believe that you deserve to win this race,…
    that you are well able to win this race,…and that you are going to win
    this race,….before the race begins.
  4.  

  5. You must practice long and hard every day to help improve your own performance. Set goals that you plan to achieve and measure your performance and accomplishments. Never practice sloppily or half-heartedly without a specific planned purpose and desired accomplishment to your practice sessions.
  6.  

  7. Get into good physical shape. Physical conditioning is required to increase your own endurance. You cannot win if you cannot endure.
  8.  

  9. Learn what you must consistently do (perform) in order to finish in first place. You don’t have to do everything to perfection, but you do have to do what is required to win. Right things, consistently done pretty, or consistently done ugly, still produce right results.
  10.  

  11. You must visualize the recognition that you will receive once you reach your set goals and achieve your chosen level of success. Imagine how great you are going to feel as you are recognized as the winner of this competition.
  12.  

  13. You must enthusiastically talk about winning the race all of the time. Scripture exhorts us to speak what we desire with all of our heart into existence just as God spoke the world into existence. You will posses that which you readily and freely properly confess.
  14.  

  15. You must treat your work ethic to turn your dreams into reality as if it were a matter of life and death,…because it is! The Bible tells us clearly and emphatically that man without a vision shall perish.

The truth of life is that if you plan to win,…to succeed in your life to the
level you have chosen, then you have to prepare to win and then perform to win. There is just no other way. Stop looking for short-cuts and quick-fixes…You will never find any such things when traveling up the Road to your own personal Success.

Look it! Your preparation will come to you while you are in the process of performing the work ethic required for you to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. The more you do the work that is required, the greater will be your personal preparation. You get better and better at what you desire to do by Doing what you have been taught to do!

Nowhere on earth do they make success pills. There is no magic formula that some folks discover,…consume,…and then succeed. Success is a process. Winning at the game of life is a learned set of work ethics and then the daily application of those work ethics towards the goals you have established. Success is not a quick fix. It is a long term slowly developed process that is achieved from hard and diligent work habits.

Once you win at doing something important, it gets easier to win at doing it again. However, losing is similarly established through a process of giving up, taking constant breaks away from the required work ethic, and always making excuses for your own failure to properly perform. You see, once you lose the first time, it gets easier to lose than to win the next time. When you do things rights mentally in practice, then you will insure that you do them right physically when it comes time to play the game. Every business presentation you make is just another practice session, regardless of the outcome. Give and give and give some more. Never stop giving and you will become successful. Why? Because real living is indeed real giving,…to other people.

If you want to become successful then you HAVE TO do the work that will allow you to succeed. It is not an option for you to fail to perform. Real winners never fail to perform,…even when they do not feel like performing.

Success is a Planned Event. Plan your work, and work your plan! And keep working it. This is the way to win and keep on winning.

 

Peace and Love to all of You………………..Poppa Bear

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