BECOME YOUR OWN CHAMPION
I’ve been in a bit of a rut lately, and I know I’m not the only one. Regardless of your political viewpoint, I think we can agree, our country, the whole world, is one huge dumpster fire right now. We need to help lift one another up off our backs and turn things around together.
But, just like when the oxygen masks drop in the airplane, we each have to take care of ourselves first. Put on our own masks before we can help anyone else. Rescue ourselves. be our own champions first. With that in mind, I would like to share some thoughts on the subject of improving our own luck by being our own champions. I hope you don’t mind.
1 – Learn and move on.
Failures happen – Learn and move on, trying a new approach.
Do not be afraid to take the calculated risk. If you should happen to fail, don’t be discouraged. Learn what you can from the effort. Don’t keep repeating the same mistakes over and over.
Keep moving forward, onward, and upward. Learn to make progress in adversity, no matter how bad it is. This does not mean that you don’t care. It only means that you are getting stronger, better. That which does not kill you only makes you stronger if you are willing to learn from it. You have survived one hundred percent of the bad days, and tough times thus far in your life. You had to get through the past to get here the present.
2 – The best way to stop a losing streak.
It is hard to believe in yourself when no one else does. It is hard to believe in yourself when you are in the middle of a long losing streak, and you know that you may have more losses ahead of you.
Breaking out of a losing streak is extremely hard to do. But that is exactly when you need to focus on the most.
The best way to stop a losing streak is to stop acting like a loser. Act like a winner—expect to win. Be a winner. Win. Winners win. Prepare. Put yourself in a position to compete, a position to win. Be ready to compete. Be ready to win.
Train and practice to the point that you know that you can do it even if nothing is going according to plan and there are distractions.
Stop whining and start winning. Think only about preparing to win and executing without mental mistakes. Don’t get in your own way. Give no thought to what your competition is doing. Let them worry about what you are doing. Make your own luck. Stop wishing and start winning. Decide what it is that you want to do and do it. Do the best you can. Right down to the last detail. Try to improve 1% each day. Soon you will be one of the best in your field.
4 – Think, train, and act like a winner.
Eliminate losing behaviors and endeavors. Get an unfair advantage, in an honest, honorable way, through preparation and hard work.
5 – Ultimately, It’s all up to you.
There’s no one else to blame if it goes wrong. It’s all up to you. Keep doing the right things, and the right results will follow.
The credit and rewards of success belong to you. If you do have support along the way, of course it is incumbent upon you to offer your sincere thanks and appreciation.
Everyone wants to be considered a success. How many are really willing to do the work and tedious preparation that is required?
So, what’s stopping you?
What’s your excuse, your story that explains your failure? What do you tell yourself and others in hopes of excusing your failures?
Excuses are irrelevant. Excuses are like a**holes. Everybody has one.
7 – What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
No one likes or wants pain. It is nonetheless a fact of life.
We all experience pain. What you are is a direct result of having survived and endured.
The fire has made you strong, flame tempered. You’ve learned, and you’ve grown.
8 – How do you talk to yourself?
Like a loser? Or a winner?
Dumping the losing mentality is the first step in becoming a winner.
When you talk or act as if you expect to fail, you will fail more often than not.
What you say and think about yourself is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The same is true with regard to what we say aloud in the company of others.
Announcing to the world that you expect to fail damages your self-esteem and torpedoes your chances of succeeding at anything.
9 – Don’t spread yourself too thin.
If I haven’t learned anything else while trying to make my way in the ecosphere, I’ve learned that it’s no good trying to juggle too many balls at once.
At times in my life, I’ve taken on too many things and ruined my chances of doing any of them well. The hardest word to say in the English language is “No!” Once you learn to say it, though, you will be able to devote more of yourself to the pursuits that are most important to you.
10 – Fate and Destiny
Fate is in the cards we’re dealt. Destiny is in the way we play. (Or the path that we choose.) Live the life you have. Play the cards you are dealt. Don’t waste your life away over what might have been. Bloom where you are planted.
11 – Habits
It’s all about developing and maintaining habits. Habits will make you a winner, or a loser. It is up to you.
12 – How do I use my circumstances to make me stronger and to prosper?
Training during adversity allows you to perform during adversity. (Remember the movie Crimson Tide, when the captain called for a weapons system check while there was a fire in the galley . . .)
13 – You can’t have it if you can’t dream it.
What is the most unlikely dream that you could possibly imagine for yourself?
What is the most unlikely thing that you have ever seen happen or come true in your lifetime, whether it was you or someone else that it happened to or for?
If one thing happened, why not the other? Why can’t your dream come true?
Just do it before it is too late to make a difference in your life.
14 – What are you inviting into your life?
With regard to the law of invitation: Like when you go fishing, the bait that you use and the spot that you choose will determine what I catch.
It’s not where you live geographically. It’s where you live internally.
You can’t lie to yourself or others and expect the truth to serve you.
17 – Be thankful. Have an attitude of gratitude.
One beautiful, Sunday afternoon a few years ago, I went for a walk on San Diego’s Shelter Island. There were lots of people there, enjoying the beautiful, sunny day. As I walked, turning over and over the concerns I had that day, I noticed a young girl about 10 years old in a wheelchair. Her arms only went to the elbows, and her legs went only to the knees. She sat there quietly as her family members were talking with friends. When they turned to go I watched as the young girl operated the joystick on her wheelchair with the stump of her right arm. I wished there was something I could do for her, but I knew there was nothing.
I tried not to stare, but I did look, not because of her appearance, but because I wanted to be looking at her as I said a prayer, asking God to bless her in some way. How, I could not imagine.
I couldn’t help but think that she would gladly trade her problems for mine, any and every day of her life.
I was left with a new perspective. As the saying goes, “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” I am grateful for that young girl and the lesson she taught me.
If you think that you have problems, think about that young girl I saw in a wheelchair in San Diego’s Shelter Island. She had stumps for arms and legs. Would you be willing to trade places with her?
Have an attitude of gratitude.
18 – Fundamentals
Some jobs are so big that we cannot comprehend how simple they are to achieve. Focus on fundamentals. Train. Practice. Every day.
19 – Quitting is not an option.
We cannot stop. We cannot turn back. We must keep moving forward.
20 – Your life is what you make of it.
21 – What does it take to defeat you?
Repeat after me: “I, and only I am responsible for my life. I blame no one.”
In the book of Timothy (which is not part of the Bible) Jesus is credited with saying, “If you bring forth that which is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth that which is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
How much time are you going to waste wishing you could change the past?
Never be satisfied with an ordinary life.
Dare to do what others only wish.
Make your own luck.