The First Rule of Winning - What's Stopping YOU

Motivaional speeches aside - the winning attitude has taken it's licks in a society where winning has become an all or nothing endeavor (from youth sports to the professionals). Why? Since when did having a winnning attitude become a bad thing? Why is it that we look for non-competitive arenas for children to succeed (or at least feel as though they have) - did we lose our sense of being a kid at some point? I remember the sting of losing as a kid - I also remember that sting lasting all the way to the ice cream store or when a team parent opened up the cooler full of treats. Just as in losing, I remember those moments of victory.

Winning and losing are life lessons. Character is determined by how you handle each. How are students to develop a sense of character when they are sheltered from the competition and from the win/loss finality of it all. In coaching, I've had teams that should not win and do, and I've had teams that should not lose and do. In both situations I have been pleased to see character developing in these young people. It's great just to be in competition and to have the fortitutde to want to succeed.

If there's one thing that must take top priority in a winning attitutde, it's the 'what's stopping you' part. You are to be measured by yourself. Not by a teammate or another team. You are to first be measured by you. How much better can you be than what you were a day ago? How much better can you compete than you did a day ago? How much more do you want to succeed than you did a day ago? What's stopping You?! A winning attitude is a wonderful thing that motivates us, drives us, and eventually compells us to go for more. You can see this winning attitude everywhere, in any situation. The real question is, can you see it in you; and what are you going to do about it?