James Phang

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Winning Mentality

The winning mentality is often associated with sporting success, however, it can mean different things for people. Perhaps you see it as winning a trophy in a sporting discipline or climbing the highest mountains. Others may see it as someone coming from immigrant parents and being the first in their generation to graduate from university. Alternatively, someone who is a carer to an ailing parent but works a permanent job simultaneously.

The winning mentality will mean different things to all but one common thing is the attitude to prevail over everything that stands in their way. The mindset is shaped by strong self-belief, grit, resolution, and aptitude to shake off the disappointment they may face.

A growth mindset will see challenges as opportunities to learn and will see failures with grace. They will see failures to learn to become wiser at decision-making in the future. People succeed not because they are always placed in favourable situations but because they know how to work their way around any situation.

Building a Winning Mentality

Mastering Your Craft

Successful individuals would spend hours mastering their craft through research and practice. Building a strong foundation to build on further is highly important and can help ensure minor setbacks don’t break the momentum of someone who is determined to succeed.

Study the Best of the Best

Studying the influential and successful individuals in your area can help you understand what works and what is needed to reach the level they were on. You can equip yourself with the right knowledge so you don’t spend time discovering what works and what does not.

Recognise What is Working or What is Not

Having a winning mindset also means changing with the times and knowing the importance of growth and innovation. Reflecting on the tools we use, our behaviour, actions, and habits will help us understand what is working for us or against us. Within any area, there will also be development and innovation that will push that industry further. Individuals that can adapt and change to the new landscape will continue to build momentum.

Not Quitting but Accepting Loses

In a winning mindset, you will always be willing to learn through trial and error. Through hard work and attitude, you can build skills to get you to the finish line. A winner’s attitude towards success will always seek growth with failures and challenges.

Pursuit of Improvement

Life doesn’t stand still once you reach the top of your field. Life and industries change constantly to adapt to external factors. Training your mind to think in new ways will help you strive for improvement and towards your goal.

Encourage Healthy Competition

Healthy competition is good and can push you outside your comfort zone to be more creative and innovative. Without healthy competition, you can be too complacent with your performance. Competition can help inspire and motivate us as well as ground us in failure teaching us to work harder next time. Viewing competition as healthy can encourage us to observe and learn from the qualities and principles of winners.

Summary

Though a winning mentality will mean different things for different people, it can help us stay focused on our objective and push us to improve. Spending time to master our craft and researching successful individuals in our craft can help inspire and motivate us to improve and become better. Viewing competition as healthy can inspire and motivate us but can also prevent us from being complacent. By adopting a winning mentality, we can push the boundaries that are set by human limitations or by societal norms. If something is easy to do, then you are not pushing yourself further. If a challenge is not possible to do then that’s something worth pursuing.  

Video: The Mindset of a Winner