Pandora current song: It's The Only One You've Got, by 3 Doors Down
With Winning in Mind, by Lanny Bassham, takes readers through a mental management journey. Most people don’t realize that mentally managing the game of life will make them more successful as well as those around them.
It doesn’t matter if you win or lose – until you lose!
Some people say that they never win at anything and that everyone else is more privileged because they are good at everything. For those people, they just haven’t found what they are good at yet. Maybe that person is always trying to be good at what everyone else thinks people should be good at. For example, football and baseball are two major spots that guys love to play and be good at. There are also guys who try so hard to be good at the sport but are never successful. To develop self-confidence, one needs to find something that they are confident in; something that boosts their confidence like art, a different sport, etc.
People lose due to poor mental management. It takes years of training or constant practice to learn how to cope with mental stress. After a person achieves this, he is confident and in control, have a different mentality and better self-image, and better attitudes and habits. People who a experts at mental management develop a system to control mental aspects of performance and, as a result, winning becomes a habit.
Why Winners Win
Everyone is born with seeds of greatness. The only difference is how we think. If one does not expect to win, there is no chance of winning. One must be in harmony with the idea that expectation and performance will achieve the greatest outcome. It is ninety percent mental and is a process of maximizing the probability of having a consistent mental performance, under pressure, and on demand. A careful balance is needed because poor performance is due to frustration,
The conscious mind is the source of one’s thoughts and mental pictures. It controls the senses, and it’s what you picture or think about. The subconscious mind is the source of your skills and power to perform. Great performance is due to developing a skill through repetition of conscious thought until it becomes automatic.
Success is NOT an Accident
Your mind can only concentrate on one thing at a time. If one is picturing something positive, it is impossible, at the same time, to picture something negative. Why is this important? One cannot be successful with conflicting thoughts and wants. If one constantly controls the image in their mind in a positive manner, it is impossible to have a concentration error and a poor performance. For example, what would a player do when the coach yelled out, “DON’T STRIKE OUT?” The player would be playing his coach’s yell over and over until he strikes out and lets himself and the team down. The same effect would happen if the coach yelled, “GO STRIKE OUT.” The ball player is set up for failure. The coach would get a better outcome if he was positive and yelled, “HIT THE BALL.”
Subconscious and Conscious
New activities seem difficult only because one is trying to do everything consciously. The mind needs assistance as skills need to be developed. A subconscious mind can make millions of calculations per second where as the conscious mind can only concentrate on one thing at a time. The subconscious mind is the source of all mental power. Everyone has it within them to use their power to achieve anything they desire. The only problem is that we only use five percent of that power. Good performance looks easy, but it is far from that.
Conscious override is a major problem especially on “game day.” Instead of trusting the subconscious mind to perform, people try extra hard to do well. Conscious override is the result. People tighten up, slow down, and get off the rhythm where consequently performance drops. People try to attempt to override the subconscious by trying to make themselves fall asleep by constantly mentally thinking, “go to sleep NOW.” However, same thing happens where conscious override takes place and that person will probably be up all night. One must trust in their ability and let it flow.
Self-Image
Self-image and performance are always equal. To change your performance, you must first change your self-image. The self-image, made up of your habits and attitudes, makes you “act like you.” Everyone has their own way of behaving. Most people believe there is nothing they can do about their behavior. They believe that they are the way they are and cannot change. However, everyone is changing all the time due to meeting someone new, different projects at work, etc.
Overall, this book has been a huge success for teaching me to how to use mental management to my advantage. We all have activities that we think we may fail at because there is someone who is better for the position, or we don’t feel confident enough to prove we are better. However, thinking differently and actually knowing deep down that you can come out on top will bring the success to the table. I have learned to reevaluate myself during certain situations where I feel I have lost or will lose. I recommend it to anyone who wants to win in life. Even if they think they already know it all.
Win by boldly challenging status quo.
Pandora current song: Truly Madly Deeply, by Savage Garden
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