Learning how to be a winner

28th October 2009

THERE are people who do not dare to try out anything because they believe that they can never win.

To a large extent, they are right. As Henry Ford, founder of America’s Ford Motor Company, said: “If you think you can, you are right; if you think you can’t, you are equally right.”

But what happens if you change your mind and start thinking that you can succeed in anything you set out to do? Well, “As a man thinks, so he is.” This means that success is largely decided in one’s mind. Does it mean every person has the potential to win? Can winning be that simple? How come the world is never short of failures?

Do you want to be a winner? Many people might dismiss this as a non-question because they think the answer is a matter of common sense – that there is no one who does not want to be a winner.

But, who is a winner? I believe there could be as many answers as there are people reading this column. This is not surprising because even each dictionary has a slightly different definition of the word.

Think of someone you know who you would consider to be a winner – preferably someone you know personally rather than someone famous. Somehow everything seems to go his or her way! Success seems to come more easily for them, for some reason. Why do you think that is the case?
Before defining who a winner is, I wish to highlight what a winner is not:
Talent is not crucial

I am sure you know a lot of talented people who are far from being successful. Their lack of success demonstrates that talent is no guarantee of success because such people haven’t, for some reason, achieved the success they ought to have.

Equally, you can think of comparatively talentless people who have enjoyed perhaps more than a fair share of success-far more than supposedly more talented individuals.

Intelligence is not crucial
Some of the most outstanding college or university students are far from being successful in their working or business lives.
On the other hand, there are several winners who are not overly blessed with intelligence just as there are some highly intelligent people who are certainly not top of the class in life. Of course, some clever people become winners but intelligence alone is not enough.

Experience is not crucial
Having a lot of experience does not guarantee success.
The same goes for being determined or a hard worker. We all know people who have been plugging away for ages doing the same old thing and have never made as much progress as they ought to have made.
Equally, there are people who come in with no experience and shoot straight to the top.

Who, then, is a winner?
Yehuda Shinar, an Israeli entrepreneur, business speaker and life coach, defines a winner as “anyone who makes the best use of their personal potential, even when under pressure and/or in competitive situations”.
Shinar says winners don’t succeed all the time but that failure is an essential part of the winning process.

Just as no one succeeds 100 per cent of the time, so no one fails 100 per cent of the time. Even people who might feel like they always fail, sometimes succeed – although they probably don’t see it.
So we are all capable of maximising our potential from time to time. It’s just that we may not experience that winning feeling as often as we would like in order to be self-fulfilled.

Shinar has developed a four-stage ‘winning model’ to help you and I to succeed frequently and minimise our failures through. He has identified attributes that characterise a winner. This enables you to work on developing the attributes yourself and become a top performer.
This winning behaviour model is a pyramid which begins with the noble warrior spirit as its base; followed by thinking and finally skill. Then, continuous debriefing comes into every stage of the winning model and the diagram shows it running up the side of the pyramid.

The noble warrior
Winners are fighters; not in a physically aggressiveness sense, but in the sense that they will always face and overcome whatever obstacle or difficulty is in their way.
The noble warrior constantly fights against the self-doubt and negative thoughts that affect all of us from time to time. And the warrior spirit is one who never gives up.  The warrior has the discipline and inner strength to go through the mental and physical pain barrier when the going gets tough; to focus on the ultimate goal of success and do everything possible to reach that goal. As such, the noble warrior is the foundation of the winner, underpinning the whole process above it.

The correct thinker
The notion of winning is not unachievable or steeped in mystery.
It’s based on clear regularity; that’s what makes it a formula that can be learned as a skill and repeated. Winners, although they may not even realise it, are driven by the same way of behaving – and that comes foremost from the way they think.
Winners think differently from other people. It is an unsophisticated way of thinking which makes some people very focused. But whatever the case, it is a very pragmatic way of thinking based on a set of defined dos and don’ts.  Fitting within the winning model are 12 winning behaviours that Shinar calls T-CUP: Thinking Correctly Under Pressure. Thinking this way is very effective in neutralising the effect of negative thoughts that tend to rear up at critical moments.

If we allow negative thoughts to get the better of us, our chances of winning are greatly reduced. The winning formula teaches people how to cope with this, and how to maintain focus and concentration despite unhelpful distraction.

Some people freeze under pressure. Some react on instinct without thinking properly. Others actually perform better as the adrenaline rush of a deadline or a performance brings out the best in them. However, winners are able to perform at their best whether they are under pressure or not.
This is because they train themselves to stay in a thinking mode, no matter what. Winners know that when they are not thinking, they are not in control of the situation. And if you are not in full control, then your chances of success are greatly reduced.

The skill refiner
Winners do not sit back and rest on their laurels. Part of their natural quest for constant improvement is their readiness to practise and polish the skills needed to perform perfectly. But it’s a systematised way of improving because you only practise what works. If you practise the winning way, you will see amazing results.

Practising and investing in hard work is part of it. The notable success that comes as a result of continually practising the right things with the right attitude may appear to the outside world as innate talent. But, in fact, it is down to putting in the effort and adopting winning behaviours which we will discuss in the near future. Continuous Debriefing

At each stage, winners are continuously monitoring their performance through a process of debriefing. Traditionally, people only investigate what happened after a failure, to learn the lessons for next time. But by the same logic, we can also learn a great deal from our successes, to deliberately replicate what works.

Winners debrief during an entire process to check that they are on the right track at all times. This helps them to correct and adjust their actions in real-time, not just as a result of post-mortem evaluation. This whole process helps to hone the awareness of what works and what doesn’t.
It helps us to decide on our tactics – whether we should stick with them or change them. And if we need to make changes, it helps us make out how to do so effectively.

To achieve results, winners need to work in an environment that creates a constant sense of competition and challenge. If they exist in a situation where they frequently see the results of their colleagues, competitors and even themselves, they feel self-driven to achieve success.
It is therefore a characteristic of winners to create an internal, positive and constructive sense of competition which acts as a driver- with the power to enhance productivity and achieve results.

I wish to end with a quotation by the philosopher Aristotle:
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

Original article form Justin Kangwa

 
See http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/media/news/viewnews.cgi?category=20&id=1256712462