#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: winning
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
WINNING AND LOSING
#winners #losers #coaches
If you are not a winner, are you a loser?
We’ve dealt with that question many times over the years, and we’ve seen both extremes.
In one extreme, tight competition among good players yields only one winner. The rest, though very good, lost. There’s a difference, though, between losing one competition and being a “loser,” we’ve discovered.
The other extreme is a child who gets an award just for showing up, so as not to hurt his self-esteem. This milieu in which everyone “wins” tends to give participants license not to try their best, or not to understand that life is a mix of winning and losing.
Tom Baxter, political columnist for the Atlanta-based Saporta Report, discussed the zero-sum game in the context of University of Alabama’s head football coach Nick Saban’s, and Michigan State University head coach Mark Dantonio’s opposition to expanding the college football playoff system from four to eight teams.
“This would do more to damage to the traditional bowl games and create a ruthless and unfair standard for college coaches,” Baxter writes of the coaches’ argument.
With the number of conferences and teams in college football, playing at varying levels with different levels of support, it’s not easy to determine a national champion. In the past, it was strictly by polls. Now, the polls determine the top four teams, and those teams engage in a playoff, with the winners of the first two games playing in a national championship game in January.
Baxter writes that Saban and Dantonio also argue that the expanded playoff format would put extra pressure on coaches. In college football, and most other sports, coaches live and die – or keep their jobs – based not only on their team’s results, but also on the expectations of the institution, or ownership, and the fan base.
Coaches with good overall records get fired based because of those expectations. Baxter used the example of University of Georgia head coach Mark Richt, who was fired before the 2015 season officially ended for his team, after 15 years of a good record. But the university and their fans had higher expectations, i.e. at least one national championship. If more teams got into the playoff format, that would put more pressure on coaches, Baxter writes of Saban and Dantonio’s argument.
Baxter uses the football analogy in reference to national politics, but let’s look at it in terms of everyday life.
Of course, everyone wants to win. But not everyone can win. There is a limited number of winning positions, at least in theory, and fair competition – or, in some cases, unfair competition – to determine who gets those winning slots.
Sometimes, showing up makes one a winner. Showing up can mean giving it a shot, which is more than some would do.
There are many who see themselves as winners, but are unsure at which endeavor they want to be winners. If you are one of those, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You might find just the things to get your winning juices flowing.
So decide at which game/occupation/skill in which you want to be a winner. Then, go for it. You probably won’t win everything, every time, but keep at it. As for expectations, expect more from yourself than others expect from you. If you achieve your own expectations, you’ll always be considered a winner.
Peter