Mindset is everything when it comes to being successful. It doesn’t matter how talented you are or how many connections you have. If you don’t have the right mindset you won’t go very far. You’re always going to have a winner’s or loser’s mindset.
A winner’s mindset acknowledges that whatever adversity they face, they will become successful. A loser’s mindset gives up when the going gets tough. The majority of the population has a loser’s mindset, but that’s not why you’re reading this article. You want to develop a winning mindset, but it will be easier said than done.
Think of some great athletes in the world: Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Mariano Rivera, Lionel Messi. Do you think they excelled at their sport because they had a loser’s mindset? They developed the winner’s mindset that put them on the brink of greatness. A winner’s mindset is earned and certainly never given. When developing a winner’s mindset, we all must start somewhere.
Develop a Routine
The first step towards developing a winner’s mindset is developing a routine in your daily life. When you don’t develop a routine in your life, you let the world dictate how your day will go.
Plan exactly how your day will go the day before. Before the next day even starts, take a pen and a piece of paper and write out the five tasks you need to accomplish the next day that will allow you to move further ahead. These are critical tasks that shouldn’t involve answering emails. Your critical task list will determine how far you go.
Once the day starts and before you start on your task list, you will want to start with your morning routine. A morning routine will allow you to start your day with clarity. It is ideal you begin your morning routine before the sun is up. Your morning routine can consist of journaling, meditation, reading, and yoga. I recommend checking out the book Miracle Morning to further develop your morning routine.
When you develop a routine, you’re setting yourself up to be successful during the day. Tom Brady has the same routine each day because it’s allowed him to get to where he is. Over time, you’ll tweak your routine to maximize your productivity. To maximize your productivity, I recommend working in chunks of 90-minute blocks. You work for 90 minutes straight and then take 15 minutes of a break. This allows you to work throughout the day without getting burnt out by mid-afternoon.
Force Yourself to Do What Is Uncomfortable
If developing a winner’s mindset was easy, everyone would do it. A winning mindset comes from doing what you feel is uncomfortable. Only you know what situations are uncomfortable. What’s uncomfortable for you might be comfortable for someone else.
A major fear of many people is public speaking. There’s no reason you should have this fear if your work at it. You could join a Toastmasters group and start speaking in front of others. The only way to develop a winning mindset is to force yourself to do what you don’t want to do.
When you force yourself to do what you don’t want to do, you will develop a resiliency. What used to scare you will not scare you anymore. The challenges you faced before will be minor bumps in the road.
At least once per day, you should be put yourself in an uncomfortable situation. Call the client you’ve been putting off or start on that book you said you could never write. The only way your mindset will get stronger is through that which scares you.
I spoke with Alan Burak, founder of Never Alone Capital, a renowned investment firm, who said, “The key to happiness is to always grow.” The day you stop growing is the day you die. When you stop growing, you’re giving up on life. No matter your age, keep pushing yourself to reach your full potential and always remember that you can do 40% more than what you think is possible.
“It’s so easy to be great nowadays because everyone else is weak,” – David Goggins
Cold Showers
The last step towards cultivating a winner’s mindset is taking cold showers. I will not lie, cold showers suck. There is nothing glamorous about them, but they get you mentally tougher. You won’t want to get in a shower when it’s freezing cold. This is a battle you’ll face every day that will help develop a winner’s mindset. This battle you face with taking cold showers is the battle you have in your everyday life.
No one will get mad at you for taking it easy. If anything, they’ll tell you to slow it down if you’re working too hard. You can’t listen to those around you. And if you ask most people if they take cold showers, they will tell you that you’re crazy. But don’t you need to be a little crazy to be successful?
You’ll learn that over time, taking cold showers will get easy as you build momentum. Day one sucks. By day thirty, you’ll be so used to taking cold showers you’ll wonder why you weren’t taking them in the first place. Cold showers force you to become uncomfortable and conquer the inner battle. To check out all the benefits of taking a cold shower, check out this article by Medical Daily.
You don’t develop a winning mindset in one day, week, month, or year. If you’re living your life correctly, you will always force yourself to face new challenges. If you want to fully live your life, you need to be growing. Your mindset will give you an advantage over the rest of the population. There aren’t a lot of things you can control in this life, but your mindset is one of them. Focus on building a rock-solid mindset and anything in this world can be yours!
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