"If you ask me how I want to be remembered, it is as a winner. You know what a winner is? A winner is somebody who has given his best effort, who has tried the hardest they possibly can, who has utilized every ounce of energy and strength within them to accomplish something. It doesn't mean that they accomplished it or failed, it means that they've given it their best. That's a winner."

Walter Payton

I was a huge fan of Walter Payton. I loved watching him play for the Chicago Bears (yes I am old enough to have watched him play for the Bears). After reading about him I was even more impressed with his work ethic and attitude about life. I believe that Walter Payton understood being a winner was about the effort and the process, not just the outcome. Walter Payton died of a rare liver disease in 1999 at the age of 45, but he left a tremendous legacy. 

As I have talked and written about on numerous occasions, effort and process are what you need to focus on, as they are what you control. You do not control outcomes. Being willing to do the work and focusing on effort will provide you the best opportunity to achieve your desired outcome. 

“My bench never heard me mention winning. My whole emphasis was for each one of my players to try to learn to execute the fundamentals to the best of their ability. Not to try to be better than somebody else, but to learn from others, and never cease trying to be the best they could be; that's what I emphasized more than anything else.”

John Wooden

John Wooden is a coaching legend for his nearly 30 years coaching the UCLA Bruins. He is in the NCAA Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. In his final 12 years at UCLA they won 10 National Championships. John Wooden never talked to his players about winning. John Wooden was all about character, effort and process.

“Winning and losing aren't all they're cracked up to be, but the trip to the destination is.”

John Wooden

Andrew Huberman is a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. One of the things Huberman talks about in all the interviews I have listened to is the importance of tying dopamine release to effort. You do this by rewarding yourself for making the effort to get better. He says that Growth Mindset involves deriving dopamine release from the effort and strain of the process, and enjoying the friction. He encourages us to think in terms of process, not events and verbs, not nouns. Think of Growth Mindset as a verb, an action item.

This is not about going through the motions and telling yourself how great you are, or rewarding yourself for just showing up. Learning, growth and neural plasticity all involve friction, effort and struggle. They are not supposed to be easy. If what you are doing is easy then you probably are not learning and growing, you are simply going through the motions. Going through the motions can make you feel like you are making progress because you are doing something, but it is an illusion. 

What makes a winner? A winner is someone who makes the commitment to effort and process in the pursuit of growth, learning, and improvement while embracing the friction and ensuring proper rest and recovery. A winner is someone who does all that in service to a cause greater than themselves. 

Life is full of winners, most of who will never achieve fame or notoriety, but all of who will make a difference in in the lives of others as a role model and mentor. 

What’s Important Now? Focus on effort and process. Embrace the Friction. Reward the Process. Strive to be a winner. 

Take care.

Brian Willis

www.lifesmostpowerfulquestion.com

www.winningmindtraining.com

Maximizing human potential through Life's Most Powerful Question - What's Important Now?

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