5 Elements of a Winning Mindset

Out of all the things you can do for your personal and professional success, choosing your mindset is by far the most important.  Noticed I said "choosing" - that is right, you get to choose.  Every day, you choose how you will approach the world and the mindset you get to have.

But, how do you know you are on the right track?  How do you know if you are choosing the right mindset? A winning mindset?

Well, that's the real trick.

Over the years, I have worked with and been coached by top experts in mindset training as well as discover many things through my own endeavors and experiences.  I recently wrote about the mental experience I went through in my last Ironman race, which a great example of how cultivating a winning mindset can power you through.

I've compiled what I think are the 5 most important elements to having a winning mindset and I trust they will help you in creating yours.

1.)  You Must Have an Unwavering Faith in Yourself

Faith is different than belief.  Faith is believing without seeing.  It is knowing in the deepest recesses of your soul.  In order to develop a winning mindset, you must have an unshakable, unwavering faith in yourself to be able to win and succeed.  This doesn't mean you are blindly arrogant and ignore your weaknesses.  It does mean that when everything is stripped away you have the faith, the belief without seeing, that you will make it in whatever you are setting out to do.

2.)  You Must Be Relentless

Winners can go through defeat after defeat after defeat without giving up.  They have an endless reservoir of will to keep going.  They are relentless in this fact.  The don't give in, give up, or ever stop.  They push farther and harder.  They learn, adapt, and go forward.  They are absolutely relentless.

3.)   You Must Be Committed

Commitment is needed to succeed in anything.  It goes along with being relentless in that it is the commitment that has to be made for you to relentlessly pursue it.  But commitment is really about your "why."  What is your deep reason for what you are doing.  That is your commitment.  It is the thing that you will not go back on no matter what.

4.)  You Must be Willing to Sacrifice

In order to have a winning mindset and to reach your highest potential, you will have to sacrifice things.  If you are a top-tier athlete, that may mean no more nights out partying with your friends, or even as an entrepreneur building your business, same thing.  It may even mean you need to change your friends.  No matter what it is, if you choose to have a winning mindset, there are things that you will sacrifice to reach it and maintain it.  Get comfortable with this now on your journey.  Be prepared for it and realize that when you do make good sacrifices in pursuit of your goals, they will pay off in the future.

5.)  You Must Be Willing to Take Risks

You will have to take risks to win at whatever your are going after.  There is no way around it.  Some risks are small.  Some are big.  Some have major consequences if they don't work out, others not so much - but the fact remains that risk is part of the deal.  I look at risk like problems that need to be solved.  The bigger the problems you can handle and solve, the more you can grow.  It is the same with risk.  Managing risk is a skill set like anything else.  And you have to build up your abilities before taking on the major risks.  What do I mean by abilities?  Maybe they are more like capabilities.  In order to take on a large risk, you need a few things.  You need to have several back up plans in case things don't go as planned.  You need to have the right resources and/or partners in place to help you.  You need to have studied the risk and looked for all the areas you can mitigate it.  And you need to understand the consequences and be prepared for them if it doesn't work out.  Of course, there is the other side, which is succeed and you need to prepare for that as well.  Develop your skills of handling risk if you want to grow your winning mindset.

There are a number of other elements, I could list.  Many are probably ones you guessed might be in the 5 highlighted above.  Things like discipline and consistency, etc.  Those are needed, but without the 5 above, it will be tough to cultivate a daily winning mindset.