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!

When you want the dream house or the dream car, you really want the experience of the dream house and the dream car. Getting yourself into the feeling of what it would be like to be experiencing what it is you want will go a long way towards manifesting those things. When we are visualizing and feeling the emotions of what it is that we want, we put out the exact same vibrations and energy as if we were actually experiencing the thing itself. It is exactly the same! Science has proven this to be true. The brain patterns are exactly the same in both situations.

The more we get into the positive feelings and emotions of what we want, the more the Universe is lining up the people, places, things and circumstances to make those desired experiences a reality for us. It is worth spending some time everyday practicing what it is like to already have what we want. Make this your priority everyday and then back it up with the action part. This is how you set the table for your success – mind-set first, action second. This is the magic dust for creating what you want.

Another important piece of this puzzle is detachment. It is about the art of allowing. You get clear about what you want, visualize and feel what it is like to have it, and then relax and trust that the Universe will deliver. Do not try to figure out the How. That will only limit you. Let the Universe figure out how and when your desired experience will become your reality. The more detached you are, the more faith you have, the quicker the manifestation. Isn’t cool to be such a powerful creator?

When we are feeling good we are so in alignment with what it is we desire. Our Inner Guidance System is saying this thing that we want is a match for how we are feeling in this moment. In other words, we know that the thing we desire is going to make us feel good (otherwise why would we want it). We are also feeling good in this moment. So, when our current emotions are in alignment with what it is we desire, the Universe responds in a co-creation to move those desires towards us.

Sometimes just getting ourselves into a space of feeling good is all we need to do to put us over the top with attracting a specific desire. It is like pulling the plug in the tub that prevents the water from flowing. A little tweak here and a little tweak there with our emotions can make a huge impact in the results we are getting on a day to day basis.

Be conscious of your thoughts and feelings everyday. Reach for thoughts and feelings that are positive and move you in the direction where you want to go. In every moment we can to decide how we are feeling. If in a given moment you are not feeling good, know that you can change it on a dime. Energy flows where attention goes. Choose positive feeling thoughts and feelings as much as you can.

Whoever wrote those lyrics for that one Sinatra song, “I’ve got the world on a string…I am sitting on a rainbow…Got the string around my finger…What a world, what a life…”, you can bet they were feeling good at that time and look at the abundance that song brought them. What lyrics are you writing for your life today?