Each week as part of our Thursday Thoughts series of blogs, we’ve been taking a look at how we can be the best possible version of ourselves.  This week, after announcing the name of our ‘Win a Wedding Ceremony’ winner we thought we’d take a look at the benefits of thinking like a winner!

The majority of  industry and sporting champions have one thing in common, they have the ability to operate in the present while still being visionaries. In order to excel, we need to make well-informed decisions as to what the future may hold, based on experience from observing trends, recognising changes and noticing important details that others miss.  Having the ability to envisage a clear and decisive path while focusing on the present can make a real difference to the outcome of our objective.

Champions in all walks of life are keen to learn, keen to enquire, listen and understand and so the point here is that it’s not the ability to store and regurgitate facts, it’s in the application of the key principles that matters.  Delivering supreme performance is not about learning something parrot-fashioned; it is about interpreting a situation and then applying knowledge affectively.

Many times in life people are faced with situations where they have a chance to deliver outstanding performance, and yet, at the final hurdle, they fall both mentally and physically.

“Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it”.

In business, sport, education and any other performance environment, there is a huge amount of evidence that the ability to sustain winning thinking, which drives winning performance, differentiates champions from the average.  Winning is an all-time thing not a one-time thing and those who lose simply can’t keep up the mental pace needed and bottle out for one reason or another. 

Why is it that?

• Many businesses have a great year yet are unable to build on the performance in the next year

• Most equalising goals are scored within 3-5 minutes

• Most sporting teams that win will dominate play in the last 5 minutes of the first half and the last 10 minutes of the second half

It is much easier to have faith and confidence in yourself when you are winning, when you are top of the tree.  What you have to develop is faith in yourself, the ability to go back to the basics and to apply more discipline when you aren’t winning. When things are going badly you often have no choice but to change if you wish to survive in your career. The real test is your attitude to change when things are going well and you are at the top of your game.

“Champions make changes when they are on top of their game – they never get complacent”.