#winning #winners #athletes #achievers #WinningAttitudes #GoodPeople
“Winning isn’t for everyone,” says a Nike ad.
Various iterations of that ad campaign asks questions like, “Are you a good person?” The ad campaign was recently featured on the just finished Olympic Games TV coverage.
The implications are that “winners,” largely referring to athletes who win medals, are focused only on winning and believe they can beat anyone.
Therefore, a winning attitude involves a bit of cockiness as well as hard work, a lot of practice etc.
However, even the best of athletes don’t win EVERY time they compete. How they react when they don’t win says a lot about them.
Most accept defeat graciously, congratulate those who win etc. These actions actually make them good people. A few look for things, other than their own performance, to blame for their loss. The conditions weren’t good, someone cheated etc.
For the non-athletes among us, winning may be defined differently.
In such cases, being a good person may make you a winner. Humbly giving of oneself, whether or not he or she gets something in return, can make that person a winner.
Those focused more on helping others win are winners themselves.
Someone may become a winner in the corporate world or other business. That person’s true victory may come in how he or she uses what his or her winnings have wrought.
Are you using the money you’ve made or the success you have achieved ONLY to enrich yourself?
Or, are you taking care of yourself, then giving the rest back to your community?
In another ad, the message is that no one wins by himself or herself. There is usually a team of people – family, friends, coaches, sponsors, teammates etc. – so involved in one’s journey that he or she probably could not have won without them.
So, even individual competitions can be “team” sports.
An adage in business is that one may be in business for himself, or herself, but one is almost never in business by himself or herself.
Those who help others succeed often reap winnings, even if they don’t set out to get them.
Bette Midler famously sings, “You are the wind beneath my wings.” Those who fit that category are often the real winners, even when others get all the accolades and glory,
So, winning may not be for everyone, as the ad says, but everybody can be a winner.
Everyone can strive to be the best he or she can be, in whatever he or she chooses to do.
It’s also worth remembering that for some, no matter how badly they may want to be an athlete, opera singer etc., a certain amount of God-given talent is required. If you don’t have it, desire and determination alone won’t make it happen.
But, everyone can find something he or she can achieve, put the desire, determination and hard work into it and get it.
What is that for you? Only you can decide.
Peter
Tag Archives: athletes
SOME THINGS AGE WELL; OTHERS, NOT SO MUCH
#age #GettingBetterWithAge #HumanBody #athletes #singers
Some things get better with age.
Wine and whiskey immediately come to mind.
The human body usually does not.
If you do physical work, generally, there will come a time when you will no longer be able to.
More often, though, if you do something physical, your body will tell you when it’s time to stop. But the question becomes, will you listen to your body?
Or, will you keep going, thinking that you can still do it, even when you can’t?
Let’s use the examples of athletes and singers. If you are a good athlete, you figure on a career that will last, hopefully, 20 years or so, barring injury.
As an athlete, it’s up to you to notice when your skills are fading. By the way, kudos to the athletes who can still play competitively well beyond their prime. Advances in training, treatments etc., along with some good luck, have kept some athletes hanging in, even doing well, after a couple of decades of competition.
Generally, though, an athlete knows, or should know, when it’s time to retire. Sometimes, those decisions are made for them. But, usually, athletes have enough pride in their games that they do not want to embarrass themselves by playing on too late in life.
Many singers, however, do not know when to stop. Even when it’s clear to the average observer that a singer, who may have been really good decades ago, can no longer sing, as he or she did, they keep singing.
Fans, perhaps those who don’t want these singers out of the picture yet, continue to pay large sums to see these old singers perform, even if the songs don’t sound quite the same as they remember.
As long as people pay, they’ll keep singing. Some of that might be pressure from their advisers and handlers, who still want to keep making money off these singers. But, here’s the question: if you were once a great singer, and you no longer sound the same after 30, 40 or even 50 years, do you have enough pride – certainly you should have enough money, if you’ve had many hits – to stop performing?
Perhaps you should find a tribute performer(s) to carry on your legacy. Sure, the fans won’t pay the same money for tribute performers, but they will sound more like you than you do now.
It must be difficult to have achieved fame and a following, and have to give it up. Both athletes and singers face the same decision at some point.
But, at least for some fans, it can be torture to listen to someone you’ve admired for years not being able to hit the notes he or she once hit easily. It’s also difficult to watch a singer, whose songs you know note for note, cheat his or her way through a concert by substituting lower notes.
If your God-given talent and endless work has made you good at something physical, remember that your body will tell you when it can no longer do what you want. Listen to your body. Avoid embarrassment. Let the younger talent in your trade carry on.
Peter
ARE YOU ‘LETTING THE GAME COME TO YOU?’
#sports #sportscasters #games #athletes #winning #winners
Often, sportscasters will say, when referring to a star player on a team, “He (she) let the game come to him (her).”
This statement can baffle, because it implies the star player sat back and became a star because the game just came to him (her).
Another popular commentary: “He (she) played within himself (herself).”
This also baffles. Why would someone play “within himself” (herself) when he (she) needs the whole team to win?
First, star players, or any players, on a team need to act. They need to do things, or make things happen, to win.
If they win, they generally don’t sit back and let circumstances dictate their behavior. Certainly, circumstances can cause them to alter their behavior – a missed shot may lead them to take another shot, for example. But they don’t passively sit back, or run up and down the field or court, and “let the game come to them.”
In short, these commentaries imply passivity among star performers, and they don’t become stars by being passive.
Perhaps the commentators meant to say that the game produced certain situations, and the star did something to either enhance those circumstances – things happen in the team’s favor – or alter them – things happen to benefit the other team.
As for playing within oneself, a star doesn’t just give what he (she) believes he (she) can, he (she) usually gives that and more. In other words, if his (her) body is telling him (her) that he’s (she’s) given all he (she) can, a player perceived to be a star always looks for more to give.
So let’s beg the question: are you just letting things come to you? Are you just playing “within yourself,” thinking there is only so much you can do to help yourself?
If so, you’ll get what comes to you. You’ll only achieve what you believe you can achieve.
But, if you prefer to aim for stardom, you will reach for more.
Commentators, or those watching you, like to confine you into something they perceive for you,
Your parents, or other elders, love to map out your life from an early age. Yes, more often than not, they urge you to settle for what life, i.e. your employer, gives you. They urge you not to stray from the person they hope for you to be.
But, as you get out into the world and start to rethink what you’ve been taught, you may want to go after something your elders, or even you, never envisioned you would do. When you do that, you feel a certain sense of challenge or adventure.
If whatever game you are in is “coming to you,” and you don’t like it or feel you can do more, there are programs out there that allow you explore things you may not have ever thought you would do. And, these programs can let you become a star, financially and otherwise.
As a bonus, you need no specific education, experience or background to become such a star. You need an open mind and a willingness to be coached.
To learn about one of the best such programs, message me.
In short, letting the game of life come to you generally does not produce success. You have to actively go after what you want – and do everything possible — to help your team win. Sometimes, that means not playing “within yourself” and jumping out of your comfort zone.
So, play on. Strive. Thrive. It’s up to you to make things happen.
Peter
BEST IT CAN POSSIBLY BE
#perfectmoments
We all strive for perfect moments, though perfection, among humans, is impossible.
In his book, “The Perfect Moment,” Andy Andrews realizes that perfection is impossible. So he defines “perfect” moments as the best that can possibly be.
We all love different things, but Andrews’ book points out that perfect moments are when good things come together. He tells the story of playing catch with his son, using a football. His son “goes long,” Andrews throws the ball, his son grabs it over his shoulder, falls down along the beach and yells, “touchdown.”
Andrews was on the beach playing with his son. The sun was out. It wasn’t too hot, nor too cold. The weather was, well, perfect. In that moment, everything came together for Andrews and his son.
What do you consider “perfect” moments? Perhaps it’s a nice day on the golf course, when you score a hole-in-one – with a witness, of course. If you’re an athlete, it may be when you, personally, have won a championship game with a winning score.
If you’re in sales, it may be when you’ve finally gotten a big contract from a prospective client that had never let you see him – until now. You’d done your due diligence, and your persistence paid off!
We have perfect moments at work, at home and in life. Perhaps perfection came when you met the person with whom you would spend the rest of your life. And, you knew it, or at least felt it, at the time.
The message in Andrews’ book is that perfect moments are created by you. Sure, they can just “happen,” but the person who creates perfect moments will see more of them.
He points out that part of perfect moments is having nothing urgent that you needed to attend to, but were ignoring. With many of us, that’s easier said than done. So the message then becomes to get your mandatory tasks done so you can have time to create perfect moments.
Free time scarce? Money even scarcer? For a potential solution to both of those problems, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You might be able to eventually have enough time to create perfect moments, along with enough money to enjoy and appreciate them.
Here’s another thing about perfect moments. You have to realize them, when you encounter them. The golfer who scores a hole-in-one will probably realize his immediately. But those beautiful days at the beach spending time with your family could be taken for granted.
So, you must realize the moments as well as enjoy them. When we realize them, we are grateful for every one of them. We may have to adjust our attitudes toward gratitude, but grateful people generally find success – and more perfect moments.
We must be a little careful not to live in every moment. Some moments are stressful, and far from perfect. Some moments are burdensome, yet we bear burdens to free us to create more perfect moments.
We are blessed to be free to create perfect moments. We understand absolute perfection is not humanly possible. But as we go through life as we know it, we realize more and more those moments that are the best that can possibly be.
Peter