The Winning Distinction
The Winners Club
George Chingarande
| Monday March 5, 2007 00:00
It is also equally important to point out early that no one has ever been and will ever be disqualified from the success race.The race will always be open to all and the rewards will always be within the grasp of all. Adversity is what sifts and separates the chaff from the true seed, and the winners from the losers. The winners, the losers and the pretenders and impostors are all revealed on the day of adversity.
What makes the distinction between people and especially between the winners and the losers is how they fare in the face of adversity. The distinction in the day of adversity comes not from the strength of one's muscle or physical prowess. The winning distinction is found in the mindset with which one faces the challenges of life. The winners have a big game mentality. They thrive and flourish when the odds are greatest, and when the tide is against them. The losers on the other hand shrink in the day of adversity.
The winners is identified because of certain empowering attitudes that he has towards adversity and set backs. It is not feasible to discuss all of them exhaustively in a space small as this, hence only a few are explored below.
Winner view adversity and failure is an opportunity. They deliberately seek out the opportunity that is contained in adversity. In many cases, it is an opportunity to learn and to grow.Yes, set backs sometimes does slow people down and disappoint. However, with every disappointment there is an appointment. With every failure there is a unique opportunity to solve a problem. Problems arise when current methods and processes prove inadequate.
Great men are folks like you and me that have distinguished themselves by solving great problems. Failures are also folks like you and me that have shied away from solving the great problems of their times and lives. After all, success is all about solving one problem after the other.
Failure and adversity should therefore never be made the final full stop to a sentence; it is rather a capital letter beginning a new sentence. Failure and adversity should close the door to one phase and open the door to another. Failure has the knack of closing some options and opening some.
Every failure and every setback and every adverse event brings with it a possibility for greatness. If you fail to win the presidential race once, there is a possibility that you will make it the second time round. If you fail twelve times, there is a great possibility that you will make history by winning on the thirteenth attempt.
The winners have an attitude that says, 'It is never over until it is over.' Losers on the hand die before they take their last breath. They give up too quickly and too easily. When all the money, the friends, and the support system are gone, winners are cognizant of the fact that they still have the next minute.
This is very important because as long as you still have the next minute available to you, then all is not lost. The next available minute is important to each one of us because if we choose to, we can permanently alter the circumstances of our lives in the next minute. We can begin in the next minute to right what is wrong in our lives, and to sow the seeds of a glorious future.
The winners are not overly discouraged by today's harvest because they understand that today's harvest is determined by the seeds of actions sown in the past. Winners therefore define a good day not by how much they have earned on that day, but by how much good seed they have planted towards a future harvest. Even in difficult times they have a vision for the future and keep pressing towards it. This is an investor mindset. The losers have their eyes strained on what can be consumed now.
They define a good day by how much they have enjoyed themselves without paying due regard to the possible future repercussions of their actions. They are ignorant of the great law of the universe to which we all bow, which says, 'Play now and pay later or Pay now and play later.' In their youth the losers over play, but they pay for this in their retirement when they realise that their retirement is a ticket to poverty and indigence.
The winners from time to time choose to forgo certain luxuries while they build the foundations for a more solid future. The winners are visionary but the losers are myopic. The losers are like the proverbial foolish farmer who roasts all his corn seed forgetting that the time to plant shall come. While this may be laughable many people are in exactly the same trap. They are busy consuming what should be investment for the future, busy sitting on their laurels when they could be using the time to groom themselves for future opportunities.
Winners recognise that the endings of today are the beginnings of tomorrow. With this in mind, daily they strive to end on a great note. When adversity strikes they do not run away from it, but they engage it knowing that tomorrow will start where they left off yesterday. If they run away from adversity, then when the sun rises on the following day, they will still be on the run and no closer to solution and respite.