As an athlete and a coach for over 35 years I will tell you that the greatest athletes that I have known personally and from a distance do not focus on winning. Oh they want to win, but they focus on the labor of their craft. Winning is just a consequence of extreme focus, time and patience. In order to be in the top 1% of your sport or industry you must do more than focus on the work though. You must also love with a passion everything about the work that is required of you! If you can focus intensely on this labor of love then success and winning will be just one more consequence in your process.
If you focus only on winning a contest or match, then you will be constantly dissatisfied unless you are winning. Nobody wins all the time and nobody performs exactly as they wish all the time. Part of the game we play in this life of sport and career is to use these kinds of challenging experiences to empower our journey. Losing a contest or falling short of a goal can make you or break you, but it is you who must choose which in those moments.
I have seen people take a loss and it crushes them, and I have seen people lose horribly and it drives them to excel. The only difference between the situations was the choice that person made. They simply redefined the meaning of that experience so that it empowered and motivated them to do more. In this life, you don’t have to listen to anyone but yourself. You never have to believe in anything but what you want to. Choose like a champion! Make every experience one that tells you how you are moving toward what you want. Winning really isn’t the point. The point is the transformation that we always feel when we meet a challenge head on and triumph over it! the point for these elite athletes is always how do I get better? What do I have to do? Not why did I get beat? Not how can I win next time? Those questions get answered in the labor of their craft and time.
Redefine your winning. Ask yourself what do I really want to feel from my experience? What is the transformation that I am really wanting in my life? Why do I do what I do? When your answer is bigger than just you, and you are laser focused on it, you love the work associated with it, and you are willing to let things come to you as they will, then you will transformation and transcend your situations and others will call it greatness! I am love. I am joy. I am good. I am greatness!
