What is it About Winners That Makes Them Special?

We think winners are people who never fail and excel at whatever they do, whether in sports, careers, politics, or business.

What makes winners special and sets them apart from losers at the opposite end of the scale?

Is it something you are born with, some innate sense of winning?

Can it be learned or developed?

Several characteristics are usually associated with winners. They have:

• determination; it would be too easy to give up without it.
• motivation that keeps them going and striving for the final prize, whatever that may be, and
• a belief that they can win.

As Kobe Bryant, NBA star for the Los Angeles Lakers, put it:

“Losers visualize the penalties of failure. Winners visualize the rewards of success.”

Winners focus on the process to get them where they want to be and accept that not every step will be positive. They accept that there will be failures along their journey, but their mindset prevents them from giving up.

They need the ability to bounce back after a setback, whether an injury to a sportsperson or a job rejection to someone who aspires to one day be a company leader.

This is the key to successful people (winners) — their mindset.

It allows them to focus on the process and never give up. They keep learning and improving, pushing themselves until they reach their goal.

This is done with purpose, continually measuring their performance and changing what needs to change to improve. In many cases, it is one step forward and two steps back, but they stick to it.

Talk to any professional athlete or Olympic sportsperson, and they will tell you they have failed many times. They have the mindset that gets them out of bed at 4 a.m. to swim in a cold pool or run around a track in the rain.

Their mindset always tells them that they can succeed and win.

It is a matter of finding the correct process rather than simply being talented and determined to follow it. The correct process starts with your mindset.

My Personal Experience

When I was at school, I was an okay athlete. I was good in short-distance running and slightly above average in longer-distance running, but being short, I was hopeless at things like the high jump.

I wanted to find something that I could do, that I could win.

In the under-14 group, I won the all-around cup for athletics. It was a win, but I saw it as a reward for being average at everything I tried. The more events you competed in, the more points you could get (for being average).

That is exactly what happened.

I went in everything, whether I was good at it or not.

The following year, I focused on hurdles. I was a reasonable 100-meter runner, had a light frame, and a good spring.

I focused all my training on hurdles.

Every night after school, I was out training to perfect my rhythm, which is the key to hurdles. I spiked myself three times in the leg with my spiked running shoes, trying to get it just right. Many times, I hobbled back for a shower after being battered and bruised by hitting the hurdle too many times.

I won the 120-meter hurdles event at the school sports competition and broke the school record. A few weeks later, I also won and broke the record that had previously stood for over 30 years at the combined school athletics competition.

I never ran another hurdle race. Life got in the way.

What it did for me was to say, “If you have the right mindset and the determination to overcome each failure with success, you can win at anything.”

The mindset of winners sets them apart; they visualize success and winning. Losers drown in doubt and indecision and leave no possibility of winning.

Till next time,

Calvin

[All rights reserved Calvin London 2024]