The Psychology of Winning

Denis Waitley

      The 10 Qualities of a Total Winner

Quality 1:  Positive Self-Expectancy 
"Life is a self fulfilling prophecy. True winners go into every event expecting to win."
   Positive self-expectancy is pure and simple optimism: real enthusiasm for everything you do. And optimism is expecting the most favorable result from your own actions. It’s also controlling what goes into your mind. In a 24/7 connected world, sometimes we just need to tune out. Neither luck nor desire has the slightest thing to do with it. It makes no difference whether we believe it or not. The brain simply believes what you tell it the most. What you most focus on be it positive or negative. And what you tell it about you, it will create. 
Quality 2: Positive Self-Motivation 
"True winners dig deep and find motivation inside themselves to get through that tough task or to learn a new skill."
   Motivation is what pushes us to achieve our goals, feel more fulfilled and improve overall quality of life. Self-motivation is, in its simplest form, the force that drives you to do things. Different people are motivated by different things and at different times in their lives.  The same task may have more intrinsic motivators at certain times and more extrinsic motivators at others, most tasks have a combination of the two types of motivation.
Quality 3: Positive Self-Image

True winners are confident and view themselves as competent, valuable human beings.

   Self image is how you perceive yourself. It is important that your self-image be both positive and realistic. Having a self image that is unrealistic can be a drawback, whether that self image is negative or positive. Sometimes having an occasional negative thought or criticism about oneself can encourage change, hard work, and success. Sometimes having too positive an image of oneself can encourage complacency, underachievement, and arrogance. Finding the balance between feeling positive about oneself but having realistic goals is important. 
Quality 4: Positive Self-Direction
You gotta have direction if you are going to go anywhere. True winners know where they are going. Their sense of direction comes from the self and not from outside influences like parents or friends.
    Successful self-directed learners have a high propensity for asking why. The successful self-directed learner embraces responsibility for doing the work of learning and doing it well. The core is to the entire concept of “self-directed.”  The successful self-directed learner does not wait for someone else to say “you must learn this.” We must know that we can manage our body and our life, and that we are entitled to have a say in what happens to us.
Quality 5: Positive Self-Control
Total winners can sacrifice immediate pleasure for a gain in the future. Delayed gratification is of immense value in reaching your goals.
   Self-control is a aspect of inhibitory control, is the ability to regulate one's emotions, thoughts, and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses As an executive function, self-control is a cognitive process that is necessary for regulating one's behavior in order to achieve specific goals. It is the ability to subdue our impulses in order to achieve longer-term goals. Rather than responding to immediate impulses, we can plan, evaluate alternative actions, and, often enough, avoid doing things we'll later regret. Self control is what allows us to direct our attention, and it underlies all kinds of achievement.
Quality 6: Positive Self-Discipline
You have to discipline yourself or else someone else will discipline you into doing what they want you to do. Total winners have the power to discipline and take control of their lives.
   Self-discipline can be considered a type of selective training, creating new habits of thought, action, and speech toward improving yourself and reaching goals.  Self-discipline can also be task oriented and selective. View self-discipline as positive effort, not one of denial. Scheduling helps you focus on your priorities. By focusing on starting tasks rather than completing them, you can avoid procrastination.Time management can become an overwhelming task. When you do not have control over your own self, how can you control time? Begin with task-oriented self-discipline and build from there. As you control tasks, you build self-discipline. As you build self-discipline, you build time management. As you build time management, you build self-confidence.

Quality 7: Positive Self-Esteem
Your mood and outlook on life affect the way you see the world and how you interact in it. Total winners are positive, powerful people who make people feel good and provide a good vibe to those around him/her.
Improving your self-image takes time and practice. Developing good self-esteem involves encouraging a positive attitude toward yourself and the world around you and appreciating your worth, while at the same time behaving responsibly towards others. Self-esteem isn't self-absorption it's self-respect. By working from the inside out like focusing on changing your own way of thinking before changing the circumstances around you. You can build your self-esteem. The goal of this positive thinking is to give yourself a more positive self-concept, while seeing yourself honestly and accepting yourself and others, and removing all the negative things that keep you from doing your best.

Quality 8: Positive Self-Dimension
Total winners like in the present. They know that now is all there is. They don’t get caught up in the past or worry about the future. They simply handle the business that they can handle which is the stuff going on today, now.
Self-esteem refers to a person's beliefs about their own worth and value. It also has to do with the feelings people experience that follow from their sense of worthiness or unworthiness. Self-esteem is important because it heavily influences people's choices and decisions. In other words, self-esteem serves a motivational function by making it more or less likely that people will take care of themselves and explore their full potential. People with high self-esteem are also people who are motivated to take care of themselves and to persistently strive towards the fulfillment of personal goals and aspirations. People with lower self-esteem don't tend to regard themselves as worthy of happy outcomes or capable of achieving them and so tend to let important things slide and to be less persistent and resilient in terms of overcoming adversity. They may have the same kinds of goals as people with higher self-esteem, but they are generally less motivated to pursue them to their conclusion.

Quality 9: Positive Self-Awareness
   Total winners are aware of their power. They understand that they can be anything with enough effort and determination.
   Self Awareness is having a clear perception of your personality, including strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and emotions. Self Awareness allows you to understand other people, how they perceive you, your attitude and your responses to them in the moment. We might quickly assume that we are self aware, but it is helpful to have a relative scale for awareness. With practice we can learn to engage these types of heightened states and see new opportunities for interpretations in our thoughts, emotions, and conversations. Having awareness creates the opportunity to make changes in behavior and beliefs. As you develop self awareness you are able to make changes in the thoughts and interpretations you make in your mind. Changing the interpretations in your mind allows you to change your emotions. Self awareness is one of the attributes of Emotional Intelligence and an important factor in achieving success.
Quality 10: Positive Action
Total winners take positive action in their business and with their friends and family. They are uplifting and motivating individuals who inspire the best from themselves and others.
   Positive Action is a systematic educational program that promotes an intrinsic interest in learning and encourages cooperation among students. It works by teaching and reinforcing the intuitive philosophy that you feel good about yourself when you do positive actions. The effects of the program range from increased academic achievement to dramatic reductions in problem behaviors. These results have been replicated in diverse settings and feature the most rigorous efficacy study designs available. For more than 30 years, Positive Action has been helping educators around the world create positive learning environments for their students. Imagine what Positive Action could do for people.