How To Think Like A Winner: Top 10 Mindsets to Develop

Everyone wants to be a winner, and who wants to be a loser anyway? However, when you look at the majority, most people are living ordinarily and only a few are living their dreams and win big in life.

While there is nothing wrong with living an ordinary life like most people did, this article is not meant for those people in that category.

This article is written for those who wanted to achieve outstanding success and win big in life.

If you think you are a winner and you wanted to win in life, this is the right place for you.

You must first decide and say that you want to be a winner before you can be one.

“The first thing is you have to say that you can.”

Will Smith

Sadly, most people never made the decision to be the best. They just live life as it is. They take whatever that comes to them and take it as it is. They have never thought of changing for the better and they have never really wanted to win.

I believe that this happens to many people out there. We all know that we wanted to achieve great success and we have the potential and ability to accomplish great results.

We tried to take action and keep the positive expectation in us.

However, somewhere along the journey, something went wrong. We did not achieve the results even after we tried. We did not win even after we tried to be as positive as possible.

The truth is, how long have we been trying and how committed are we toward our dream?

Most people tried a few days and some tried out for a few weeks. Some tried for many years but they never learn to improve their skills and master their crafts.

Winning is not easy and living your dreams are challenging. This is why so few of us actually made it to the top.

But that does not mean that it is not possible for you and me.

In fact, anyone can be successful if they wanted to. Anyone can become a big winner and live their dreams if they choose to.

The question is, how do you do it? And this is what this article is meant for.

If you want to be a winner, start by adopting these top 10 winner mindsets. Start by changing your thoughts and think like a winner.

When you think like a winner, you will act like a winner. And when you act like a winner, you will get the results of a winner.

Your thinking will shape your life. You become who you think about most of the time.

So think like a winner to be a winner. Here are the top 10 thinking that will transform you into a winner…

1. Think Like An Athlete

Have you ever seen athletes competing in the Olympic Games? No matter what sport it is, every one of them is extremely committed and excited about the game.

These athletes have prepared themselves for years just to perform and compete for a few short minutes.

The divers trained since young and they went through all the challenges. And when they are finally selected and qualified to compete in the Olympics, they only get to do it for just a couple of minutes.

So what makes these great people able to hold on and perform to win?

They have a big dream and they are willing to die for their dream.

What about you? What is your dream? Do you have a dream?

Your dream will ignite the winner in you. Your dream will give you the energy and the motivation to get up early and stay later and work harder than anyone else.

It all started with a dream.

Do you have a dream? You do not have to dream to be a professional athlete; your dream can by anything that you are passionate about.

Maybe you want to buy a bungalow for your parents? Maybe you want to bring your lover to the Hawaii or maybe you want to grow a multi-million-dollar business and live like a millionaire?

Whatever it is, your dream must be big and your dream must be something that will excite you when you think about it.

Stop being vague and unclear about what you want to accomplish in life. When ask most adults what do they want to achieve in life, they will tell you that they want to be rich or they want to be happy.

These are not dreams but vague wishes that are not specific.

The more specific you are with what you want, the more potential power your dreams can give you.

What you can do:

Take a piece of paper and write down your dreams right now. If you are not doing this, it simply means that your dreams are not important to you.

If you are serious about making your dreams come true, you must do this right now. Put your dreams on paper and make them more tangible.

You have to decide right now what it is you want to accomplish in life. And you have to be serious with it. Once you have written down your dreams, and that’s it, it has been decided and those are the things that you want.

Tell yourself that you will never settle for less and you will do whatever you can to achieve them.

2. There Are No Holidays

Being a winner is not an easy task. It takes a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication to be a winner.

Extraordinary people are able to achieve amazing success because they are willing to work harder than ordinary people.

They are willing to put in the time and pour in more effort than most people. That is why they become the winners.

There is a saying, “The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in the battle.”

H.L. Hunt, the oil billionaire said that there are only two keys to success. The first key is to identify what you want, but sadly, most people never do that.

And the second key is to find out the price that you need to pay to get there and get yourself busy paying the price.

You need to sacrifice in order to be successful. There is no gain without pain. I believe that everything comes with a price.

If you want to win big in business, you must learn and master the art of building your business. You may have to wake up early, work harder and stay later than most people.

You may have to sacrifice your weekends for work. You may want to cut off your leisure time and stop watching TV or stop spending time mindlessly on Facebook.

Whatever you do, you will have to choose one over the other. And your choice will determine if you are going to be a winner or a loser in life.

Do you know that Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO started his work as early as 4.30am? Do you know that Richard Branson wakes up at 5am most days to prepare himself for business?

What about you? What do you do most of the time? Do you wake up early to work on your dreams? Or do you continue to sleep on your bed and dream your dreams?

Successful people seldom take a day off. This may be hard to swallow, but it is a cold-hard truth that you must accept.

“I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one. And I’m still fanatical, but now I’m a little less fanatical.” – Bill Gates

Why do you think Bill Gates becomes the richest person? He said that he never took a day off when he was young, building and growing Microsoft.

Most extraordinary are the same. Steve Jobs never really take off days. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo train most weekends.

Michael Jackson danced to perfect his dancing skill almost every day. Phil Jackson, one of the coaches for Michael Jordan said that every morning when he reached the basketball court, Michael was already there, training hard.

While I’m not saying that you should not take a day off. Or you should not go and get fun. You have to understand that remarkable people treated their work and their business as their game.

They love to do it and they are excited about it. They look forward to doing it and that is why they have all the energy to do it.

Their work is their life and their business is in their blood. They love doing it and they don’t even want to take holidays!

When you have reached this level, you will never want to take a day off as well. Your work will become your play and you will do whatever it takes to grow and reach a new height.

What you can do:

Understand that everything comes with a price, so do your dreams. And decide right now if you are going to be 100% committed to paying the price for your dreams.

You may want to reschedule your calendar and work harder for what you believed in. And you may want to share your dreams with your partners and people who care about you so that they will understand and hopefully, support your ‘craziness’.

Normal people will never understand why successful people are so obsessed with their work. And you have to ignore the naysayers.

3. Start The Domino’s Effect

Every big thing once started small. Rome was not built in a day and Bill Gates did not become a billionaire overnight.

It takes the time to achieve what you want and to be extraordinary. That is why it is difficult and challenging.

The majority will give up somewhere along the journey. They will quit faster than you imagine. This is actually good news because it means that you will have less competitor and when you have made it, it makes you special and unique.

One very important key you must understand about creating success in whatever you do is this:

‘Success is about taking one step at a time and doing it over long period.’

Most people get it wrong and think that in order for them to be successful; they must do that one big thing. This is why people are buying lotteries and looking for secrets to success.

They thought that success will come with just one shot. They just need to make one decision and take one bold action, things will come to them.

No, this is not true at all. Success starts small and it is all about getting the small things done.

Success is about taking the one step, calling that one person, writing that one article, preparing for that one presentation, etc.

The same goes for failure. The ultimate failure will come when you fail to make that one call, fail to take that one small step, fail to say ‘Thank you’, fail to follow through and prepare, etc.

It is the small things that added up and accumulates that give you the ultimate result you want.

Therefore, what you do every day is more important than what you do once in a while.

That one big shot or bold move may not guarantee your long term success. This is why lottery winners will usually lose all their money after a few years down the road.

They are not prepared, they do not know how to manage the money and they did not have the habit to keep it works all the time.

This is where the domino’s effect comes in. Life and success are like dominoes lined up in front of you. When you push one down, it will hit the second one and the second one will fall and hit the third one. And on and on it goes.

If you want to make all the dominoes fall, there is just one thing you need to do, focus on pushing the first one to fall.

It is the same in life. All you need to do to make it all work is to focus on taking just one small step that will get you where you want to go each day.

After you took the first step, the second step will automatically unveil and you will know what to do next.

You do not have to know exactly how things will turn out, but you just need to focus on doing the right thing and taking small action steps each day.

Like the movie, Lord of The Rings, the fellowship of the ring never knows what they will encounter. Once they have decided to destroy the ring, they just proceed and head over to their destination.

What you can do:

Winners can never guarantee that they will win in every match, but they will just focus, train, prepare and take just one step at a time.

You must do the same. Identify and create your “success list” right now. You have to know what are the things that you need to do that will move you toward your goals and your dreams.

Find out your most important and result-producing work and commit to taking action each day.

If you will commit to taking just one small important action that will bring you closer toward what you want, you will eventually arrive at your destination.

4. Keep Your Desire Burning

Do you know why most people give up and quit? The answer is simple; they let their desire down and eventually forgot about their dreams and their goals.

If you are serious about achieving your goals and becoming a winner, you must do whatever it takes to keep the momentum going.

You will be very motivated when you first started out, however, as time goes by, your motivation will go down and if you are not doing anything to keep yourself fire up again, eventually you will want to quit and give up.

Motivation does not last forever. You must do something each day to keep it up.

Unless you have made it your habit, you will need to keep yourself motivated to work on your dreams.

So how do you keep your desire burning and keep your momentum up all the time? Simple, just keep moving forward.

You have to keep yourself in action to stay in action.

Just like a train, when it stops and stays stagnant, it takes a lot of energy to make it move. However, once it moved, it will be very difficult to stop.

It is the momentum in play here. When you are doing nothing, it will be difficult to come up the motivation and take action. You will need a lot of energy and drive to do that.

However, if you are in action, it will be easy for you to keep taking action and keep doing the work.

For example, when you are writing an article, usually, the first paragraph will be the most difficult. Once you have started writing the first paragraph, ideas will start to flow in your head and writing the second paragraph will be easier.

Therefore, always keep yourself in action. It is the same in building a habit. How do you build a new habit? You have to repeat the habit over and over again until it becomes, well, a habit.

Thus, in order to stay motivated, you must keep yourself moving and in action every single day.

This will maintain your momentum and in the same time, making sure that you are moving and keep the energy high.

What you can do:

No matter what you do, you must commit to taking at least one action that will move you toward your dreams each day.

Even if it is late at night or you feel tired and sleepy, you must take that one action step before you end your day.

What you are trying to do is to build the self-discipline and to turn it into your habit.

When you are in motion every day, you will be able to keep the momentum going. How do you keep the camp fire burning the whole day? You keep adding woods to the fire.

So how do you keep yourself motivated? You keep taking action each day.

5. Going The Extra Mile

A winner is someone who is willing to do more than ordinary people, which is why he or she becomes a winner.

I have told you that Michael Jordan trained harder than the rest of his team, and that is why he became one of the best basketball players.

What about you? Are you going to do the extra mile?

Are you willing to wake up at 5am, learning, reviewing your goals, exercising and start working when other people are still sleeping?

Are you willing to stay later when everyone else has gone back home to enjoy their life? Do you spend your weekend planning and working instead of thinking about what movie to watch?

When we talk about going the extra mile, the first thing that you need to do is to dedicate to do more than other people.

Next, you need to deliver more value than others. You must do and perform better than you are expected to. This is how a winner is made.

When your coach expects you to train 5 hours a day, you have to train 6 or 7 hours a day. When your boss wants you to make 50 sales calls, you do more than what he expects and make 70 sales calls. When your client expects you to be there at 5pm, you get there by 4.30pm.

You will make people surprise and appreciate you more when you over deliver.

When people expect a mobile phone to be just a phone, Apple brought it to the next level and captured a huge portion of the market.

This is how you win in business and in life. The moment you over-deliver and make your clients or customers happy about what you provided, there is a high chance that they will come back to you.

It is the same in every area in life. Some people may think that they do not have to do more than expected because that’s exactly how much their boss is paying them, so why do more?

Try to change your thinking for a moment. If you expect a raise, then do more, your boss will appreciate and give you a raise. What if your boss did not give you a raise?

Did you tell him about the value you deliver to the company? If you have told your boss and your boss did not appreciate and give a raise, you can choose to leave.

If you have seriously over delivered, there are other companies out there who will appreciate your value and pay you more for what you do.

There is only one way to get to the top, and that is to constantly do more than you and others expected.

What you can do:

Are you doing more than you expected of yourself? And are the works you do going to make you a winner?

You know the answer in your heart. If you are not over delivering through your work, you know it and that is why you are not a winner, yet.

So brainstorm and think of ideas how to over deliver to your company and your business.

More importantly, take more action and do more than what you have expected of yourself.

Be willing to do the extra so that you will transform from ordinary to extraordinary.

6. Your Purpose Is To Win

If your purpose is not to win, why do you take part in the competition in the first place?

Sounds ridiculous, but this is exactly what most people do in their life. They try out something, but they did not expect to win and that is why they did not do their best.

The majority people are working because of the monthly income that they get from their work, not because that they wanted to do something extraordinary.

Most people have lost their senses why they wanted to work. They thought that working is part of life, and what they should do if they are not working?

They have the thinking that they need a job so that they can pay their bills. While there is nothing wrong with holding a job, but is this what you really want?

Well, let’s just get Alan Watts to explain job and money in this video below:

I hope that the above short video is able to open your mind about working and money.

Never forget why you go to work. You go to work not because you want to earn a living, but instead, you go to work because you want to win in life.

Many people forget that because they have bills to pay and they have the commitment to settle by the end of each month.

This is why they stuck in the rat race and keep running in the same cycle. So you must change your thinking.

You must expect to win, in your work, in your relationship, emotionally, in your career, in your business, and in your life.

Don’t just go to work because of salary. Go to work because you know there are something bigger waiting for you, something that is calling you over and something that will fulfill your destiny.

Always remember your purpose. Why you do what you do. And remember, your purpose is to win.

The moment you were born into this world, you have made yourself a winner in the ‘swimming competition’ inside your mother’s womb.

If you did not win the competition, you will never be born into this world.

And yes, you were born a winner. So stop living the mediocre life like a loser. This is your wake up call that you want to do things better and become a winner in every area of your life.

Whatever you do in life, expect to win. When you are in business, expect to profit and build a successful business. When you are in a relationship, make sure you are real and love your partner with all your heart. When you at work, do remember your dreams and your goals and expect to win.

What you can do:

A winner can only win when he expects to win. So think positively and remember your purpose is to win.

So you may want to create a plan and start to brainstorm how you can improve your work, your attitude toward your spouse, your relationship, your business, etc.

Constantly remind yourself of your purpose and set goals to achieve the results you want.

7. Mastering The Arts

Why do you think successful people read a lot of books? When you read books, you are consciously directing your mind to think about what you want.

When you read a business book, you are forcing information about business into your head. This will build the intention inside your head. And when you have the intention, there is a higher probability you will feel emotional about it and take action on it.

If you are in business and you read a book about building a successful business from scratch and how the author gone through his challenges, you will feel inspired and motivated.

Why? The reason being that you can relate to the story. When you are on the same page, you will feel energy flowing and ready to take massive action again.

This is why reading is so important because it keeps your motivation up and gives you insightful ideas to incorporate into your life.

No wonder most leaders are voracious readers.

Anthony Robbins said that he read more than 700 books when he was young. He was so obsessed to achieve great success in life and he just can’t help but keep learning. I believe he is still a voracious reader today.

Jack Canfield said that he average about a book in 2 days. And that means he would read at least 10 books in a month. The same goes for Elon Musk, he finished the entire shelves of books and he even read the encyclopedia.

Why do these people read so much? The reason being that they know if they want to get better and they want to improve, there is no way to get around reading and learning.

If they can get just one idea out of every book they read, they would have accumulated hundreds of good ideas that will help and change their life.

And out of the hundreds of good ideas, I’m pretty sure there are some very powerful and life-changing ideas that they can implement. This is why they are successful.

Therefore, if you want to be a winner in what you do, you must master the arts of your work. You must become the best in what you do.

And to become the expert in what you do, you must commit to constant learning every single day.

This is what I’m doing as well. I will spend at least 30 minutes to an hour reading books each day. Sometimes I will reread some books that I find interesting. Warren Buffett read the book, The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham several times before he finally took a bold move to invest.

What you can do:

Create a schedule to read and learn. Commit to attend at least 1 seminar each year or if possible, go for more.

If you say that you do not have the time to read, here’s my suggestion, wake up 30 minutes earlier each day and use the time to read. It will change your life.

It depends on how serious you are about learning and improving. When you are serious, you will find time for it. When you are not, you will look for excuses.

8. Trust Your Potential

In order to be a winner in life, you must always trust yourself and your potential. Do you know that the biggest failure in life is not that you failed in your relationship or you failed in your business, but the biggest failure in life is that you fail to believe in yourself?

Successful people trust their judgments and they believe in themselves. When you believe in yourself, you will do your best because you know there is a possibility to win.

For those athletes who made it to the Olympic, why do they strive and work hard to compete? It is because they believe that they stand a chance to win, which is why they try their very best and put in their all.

If you do not trust your own ability, would you even try? Why do you set your goal to make a million dollar? Would you set this goal if you do not think it is possible?

Hence, it is just like what Will Smith has to say, “The first step is to say that you can.”

And when you believe that you can do it and you can win, you will then tap into your potential and start to make it work.

So trust your potential and believe you are capable. Seriously, if you do not believe in yourself and your dreams, who else would?

So how do you believe in yourself? The answer is simple, you take action. Even if it is just one small step, you need to do it.

You will only take action when you believe in something. So just do it. There is no point keep telling yourself that you believe you can become a millionaire. What you say you will do will not define you unless you do it.

Taking action is the most concrete form of belief. If you believe that you can win the lottery, you would buy the tickets already. You cannot trick your mind by telling yourself to believe in your dream but you are not actually working on it. This is not how it works.

Your will strengthen your beliefs when you act on them.

What you can do:

Take consistent action every day. Success is about taking small and consistent actions. And it is those small actions that will give you a little result here and there. And when you see the result, you will boost up your confidence and build up your beliefs.

It is a cycle. The more action you take the more result you get. The more result you get, the more confidence and the more you believe in yourself. The more you believe in yourself, the more you will do.

So dream big and start small today. Just commit to taking one small important step that will move you forward each day.

9. Be Extraordinary

When it comes to winning, you must be unique and special. You must believe in your own way and your own thinking. You are authentic and there is no need for you to follow others and do what others tell you to do.

After all, this is your life and you get to choose what to do with it. No one is pointing a gun to your head telling you what to do.

So stop listening to the naysayers. Stop believing in those people who tell you it is impossible. Everything is possible when you believe in it.

Do you know that when Apple decided to launch iPad years ago, many people thought that it was a big flop? Apple already launched iPhone and now something similar but with a bigger size.

Most people did not believe iPad was going to perform that time. However, things were different and iPad became the best-selling product of Apple. Look at this statistic:

“It took the iPod 3 years to reach 10 million units, where the iPhone hit it in under two. The iPad broke 10 million in its third quarter.”

Source: http://aaplinvestors.net/stats/iphonevsipod/

I’m not an Apple fanboy, but I’m Steve Jobs fanboy. I love Jobs’ work and I think he did something truly amazing in life.

The lesson here? Just ignore the naysayer and people who tell you it is impossible. When Arnold Schwarzenegger started his bodybuilding career, most people never think that he can accomplish great results there.

The same thing happened when he went into the acting career. People said that he had a big body and it was not suitable for acting. Some said that his name was too difficult to pronounce. Look at what he had accomplished in the movie industry.

You have to believe that you are extraordinary. Sometimes people may think that it is impossible for you to achieve what you want in life, but that’s totally fine because you are not them. You are special and you are unique.

You do not want to live like everyone else. You want to be extraordinary and live a great life and not a mediocre one like everyone else had.

So be extraordinary and dare to do things differently.

What you can do:

Always choose to believe in yourself and protect your dreams. When people tell you that it is impossible, you have to protect it and prove them wrong.

Like what Arnold Schwarzenegger did. When people tell him that something is impossible, he would feel happy because if he did it, he would be the first person to do it.

Dare to challenge the status quo and do things that you think are right. You have to create your own ‘style’ to win. You can learn from others, but never copy them. Instead, improve their way and make it yours.

You may fail, but never quit and never give up. And that is the last winner mindset I would like to share with you…

10. Winners Never Quit

Finally, a winner will never quit because if he quit, he can never win.

You must apply this same rule in your life and business. Never give up and never quit. When the tough times come, just tell yourself that the hardships are there to grow you.

It is not a bad day that you are going through; it is a character-building day.

Most people never have the perseverance to go through most of the challenges they face in their journey. Most people would quit half way.

They said that it is lonely at the top, and it may be true because most people never have the perseverance to reach the top.

It is less crowded at the top. So if you want to enjoy a better view and eat a bigger pie, aim for the top and go for it until you reach there.

Success is difficult because people just can’t take the challenge and they give up way too soon. It took the Pokemon Go founder, John Hanke 20 years to become an overnight success.

Soichiro Honda failed over and over again when he was young trying to sell Toyota his engine piston ring design. Bill Gates did not build Microsoft into a billion-dollar company in a day and he said he had never taken a day off in his twenties, not even once.

Success requires sacrifice and persistence. Do you have them?

What you can do:

No matter what happen, never lose hope and never lose your dream. Protect your dream and continue to march forward because you know it very well that one day you will live your dream.

As long as you have identified your destination, take small steps to move there each day and never give up, you will eventually reach there.

Conclusion

Achieving outstanding success always starts with your mindset. By adopting the right thinking, you will be able to make the right decisions. And your right decisions will get you into taking the right actions that will give you great results.

It may not be easy to live your dreams and accomplish what you want in life, but this is what makes it worthy and this is what going to make you so special.

Are you moving toward your goals right now? Share with me your thoughts in the comment section below.