Winning In Life

n“Winning isn't everything, but the will to win is everything.” ~Vince Lombardi.

After decades of mixed results—of both enjoying happiness and a sense of accomplishment in succeeding, and not enjoying the bruises, bumps, bleeding and broken bones of failing—I finally figured out a simple prescription that helps me and others win in life. To win in life you have to go from not surviving to abundant thriving…from striking out to hitting home runs from the curve balls life continually throws at you during your journey.

Success at winning in life involves alignment with three main things:

PRIMARY PURPOSE

Every winning outcome is founded on the winner’s clarity and persistence of primary purpose. When you don’t have or know your main purpose in doing something, you will not have a steady direction or target to move towards. You will be wandering aimlessly in all different directions just like our non-system of criminal justice, without the needed common purpose with which to align decisions and actions. And of course if you don’t have the right purpose, you may reach the top rung on your ladder only to realize you had your ladder placed against the wrong building. The purpose of life is both a destination and journey.

PROPER PERSPECTIVE

In trying to win, it doesn’t do any good to have a clear purpose if you can’t see the reality ahead, including the inevitable failures, obstacles and adversities between you and winning and what to do about them. The key is in seeing a positive purpose even in negative things that happen to you in life, so that you can be more hopeful and expectant of an eventual positive outcome that benefits you. Optimism and positivism just make good sense based on the good results and feelings which they give you. And of course if you don’t like the results you are getting all you have to do is develop enough flexibility to change perspectives (what you see depends mostly on where you’re doing the looking from; don’t like what you see, just trade places and times).

“P” POINT PRINCIPLES

The simplest formula for winning says, Winning = Talent + Efforts. And the opening quote is a good example of applying a smart “P” Point Principle to win in life. Having the will to win is a Psychological Power Point Principle, or just “P” Point Principle for short. These are the little, but well-timed and well-placed actions you can take to get the biggest results with the least side effects. Common examples are clever, pulling newspaper headlines and book covers and high-impact political sound bytes and music video clips. A more practical example is taking advantage of a teachable moment by carefully listening to understand and thoughtfully answer a question posed to you at a critical time.

The first two main topics above are also “P” Point Principles—(1) always start with a clear purpose in mind to what you are doing, and (2) practice positivism, optimism and flexibility in removing the obstacles, getting the outcome you want and never giving into the easy temptation to quit.

If you want to thrive past all of life’s difficult tests and get a winning grade of abundance, know your primary purpose, get the proper perspective, and fill your efforts with smart “P” Point Principles. This simple winning formula will always get the results you want.