Most people go through life Playing Not To Lose rather than Playing To Win. The successful people in life are always Playing to Win. Playing to Win is a choice. Playing to Win is a mind-set. How do we get the mind-set of Playing To Win? We often have to let go of past conditioning. Most of us, from our earliest childhood days, were taught that failing is a really bad thing. Playing Not To Lose is about playing it safe. It is defense rather than offense. Playing To Not Lose is being afraid to fail.

A perfect example of Playing Not To Lose can often be seen in sports. One of the teams has a stellar offensive performance for almost the entire game. However, not wanting to lose, they change their game plan to a defensive one with only a few minutes left in the game. As if it was written in the stars, the team that was down all of sudden garners some offensive life and the next thing you know they make the winning score. It happens over and over again.

Our society is so conditioned that failure is bad. You didn’t get the job, you are a failure. You didn’t win the game, you are a failure. You went out of business, you are a failure. If you look at people who achieved extreme greatness in our world, almost all of them had some major failings in their life. If you ask them where they had the most growth in their life, they will always say it was from their failures. I know this to be very true for me.

The failures in my life have added so much richness to my life. I have learned so much and it makes the Wins that much sweeter. It took me six business attempts to finally succeed in business. All my previous failures taught me some valuable lessons about succeeding in business. For me, failure is taking a step backwards in order to have the momentum to make that giant leap forward.

Whatever you are trying to achieve in your life, it is worth doing a self-assessment to see if you are Playing To Win or Playing Not To Lose. Is there anything holding you back from achieving your big dream? Is there any past conditioning that you need to let go in order to succeed? What beliefs do you hold about winning and losing that might be preventing you to take that big step forward?

When you jump to the side of Playing To Win, life is exhilarating! You feel so good and you are so happy and proud of yourself. You grow and expand and you eventually achieve all those experiences you have been craving to experience. Life becomes fun! You are no longer one who sits on the sidelines. You become the Powerful Creator of your Life!