The Winner's Mindset

“You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.” Zig Ziglar.

You are competitive, and that’s a great thing! Winning is incredibly inspirational and can propel you perform even better and achieve even greater heights.

I believe that a strong competitive spirit coupled with rational realism can go a long way in creating winners. Here, I am talking about consistent achievers who have a winner’s mindset.

A few thoughts on the winner's mindset….

Winners are passionate about winning
Winners thrive on the blood-rush of a tumultuous environment. The pulls and pressures of competition motivate them to gear-up for a good fight; they focus on the goal and become sharper and more creative in their strategies

Winners assess the playing field correctly
Winners appreciate competition. They assess the competitor’s strengths and try to better them. They assess his weaknesses, and devise strategies to exploit them. More importantly, they know their own strengths and weaknesses. If you want to be a winner, never under-estimate a competitor, remember he is also assessing you and devising ways of beating you….…hence keep your information, knowledge and skills up to date.

Winners are perseverant
The quote "Winners never quit and quitters never win" says a lot about the tenacious 'winner's mindset'. Winners have conviction in themselves, and if they believe in the mission, they are willing to persevere on, even when the going gets tough.

Winners are pragmatic
Winners can assess when a battle cannot be won, and chose to make a retreat. The purpose of such a strategic retreat is simple: you want to live to fight another day. Winners believe in ‘winning the war’, and hence are willing to take a few ‘battles lost’ in their stride.

Here are some classic quotes on winners versus losers.

• A winner sees an answer for every problem. A loser sees a problem in every answer.
• A winner says, "It may be difficult, but it’s possible." A loser says, "It may be possible, but it’s too difficult."
• When a winner makes a mistake, he says, "I was wrong." When a loser makes a mistake, he says, "It wasn’t my fault."
• A winner says, "I can do more." A loser says, "That’s not my job."

These quotes may sound clichéd, but I believe they ring true, and have come to strongly subscribe to them over a period of time.

© Sujata Khanna. All rights reserved.

Lokpal Bill Fiasco

It is a defeat of an arrogant govt, says BJP

Charging the government with “orchestrating” the events yesterday to avoid voting on the Lokpal Bill in Rajya Sabha, Jaitley said, “Government created disturbance with the help of a friendly party to run away from vote…If government shies away from voting on amendments it does not want, it is a sad day for Parliamentary democracy.”

BJP choreographed fiasco on Lokpal Bill in RS, says Govt

Government today projected the BJP as the villain in Rajya Sabha’s failure to pass the Lokpal Bill yesterday and accused it of choreographing the fiasco but refrained from blaming key UPA constituent Trinamool Congress which had moved several amendments.

Source: www.firstpost.com, December 30, 2011

“A politician is a man who will double cross that bridge when he comes to it.”~Oscar Levant

After the Loksabha passed the Lokpal bill, we actually believed that not all politicians were bad, not everything was as bleak as we thought, and that this country still had hope. But the charade of the Loksabha debate and the subsequent passing of the bill, awaiting ratification in the Rajyasabha, was just a ruse to fool the common man.

Why would politicians want to get off the gravy train? Plundering national wealth is a guaranteed privilege to our elected representatives. Our parliamentarians may wax eloquent, denigrating corruption in their debates, but they will fight tooth and nail any law that takes away that privilege.

The government, riddled with controversy over controversy, and having a large number of corruption charges against its ministers, certainly did not want the Lokpal. It, quite clearly, had a pre-conceived plan to create a stalemate. Projecting an image of a party committed to the anti-graft bill, its floor management in the Loksabha was impeccable. Yet, it used its allies like Trinamool Congress and outside supporters like RJD to create chaos in the Rajyasabha to stall the crucial legislation.

The opposition had a two pronged strategy. They took a stand that the Lokpal, as proposed by the government, was weak, and asked for 180 amendments. The obvious ruse was to stall the bill from being passed. And if it did get passed, well, they could get political mileage by supporting the Anna Hazare movement with full fervour, blaming the government.

It is one of the greatest blunders of belief that any political party ever wants the Lokpal. Over the years, every ruling party made sure that this Bill did not see the light of the day, whether it was the government of VP Singh, HD Deve Gowda, IK Gujral, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and now, Manmohan Singh.

Once more, the bill was methodically scuttled. Each party shrewdly put an independent spanner in the wheel, creating its own alibis to sincerity while blaming the others. The political class failed the people once again.

© Sujata Khanna. All rights reserved.