Winners Start With A Winning Attitude

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing” - Abraham Lincoln


How do you create a winning attitude?


First, you must let go of your negative thoughts about yourself. Remember that your thoughts create your experience in reality; you are or will become exactly what you think you are. Your life is what you believe it should be.


If you are overly aware of each and every one of your faults, and if you tend to focus on said faults then, unfortunately, so will everyone else. As I stated previously we tend to sense the fears and discomforts of others and this colors our reaction to and our relationship with them.


Let’s say you have a job interview, you do not want the job as much as you need the job, you are a little resentful that you have to go through this interview process. You walk into the room with these feelings on display for all, your smile only goes as far as your lips and your body language betrays you. The interviewers discuss your application later and they all agree that while you are highly qualified, there was just something about you that didn’t resonate. You did not have a winning attitude.


Secondly, you must let go of your anger and resentment over slights real or just perceived. Think about it, if you sit down to a 7-course gourmet feast when you are really angry, what would it taste like? It wouldn’t taste like anything because you would be too mad to enjoy it. Same holds true for life, how can you live it, taste it, enjoy it, if you’re angry and resentful and spend all your time reliving what’s done and over with?


Do you notice a theme here? To create a winning attitude requires working on yourself and your thoughts. Winners are confident on the inside and what the outside looks like is irrelevant. Case in point – Bill Gates, what an unassuming almost weaselly looking guy, but he is one of the richest most powerful men in the world – how does he do that? Donald Trump – the guy has a comb-over or a really bad toupee and has lost millions over time! But he just keeps coming back, bigger, better, richer.


Want to have a winning attitude? Study the winners, you can bet that they did their homework to get where they are today. Read biographies and autobiographies about the people that you admire. Learn to posture yourself in a similar manner. Don’t mimic your idols (that would be creepy), instead find ways to implement their wisdom in your life. Self-development through reading, training, and attending seminars is an important part of creating a winning attitude.


At Marine Corps Boot Camp we were often told to “strut ladies” and it always made me feel good inside – still does. To strut requires holding the head up, shoulders back, chest out, back straight, arms swinging in a controlled fashion; one cannot help but feel beautiful and confident when strutting. Everything is right with the world when you strut, my advice to you is to stop slouching through life, throw your shoulders back, hold your head up, put a smile on your face (a real one) and strut!