Tag Archives: winning spirit

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Your inner light

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You can glow in the brilliance of the light inside you.  Just turn it on.  The decision to both be brilliant and perceived as brilliant is a personal choice.

Skills and Capabilities

Each of us has a unique set of skills and capabilities.  These can limit our results but not our ability to shine.  While everyone cannot win an Olympic gold medal, you can feel that way.

Most people are sensitive to the how you feel.  From your demeanour to body language to speech you are constantly telegraphing your status.

If you inner light is off, others will recognize it.

Self Check

Your underlying inner status is comprised of both concious and unconcious parts.  That is, some of how you feel is top of mind but like the iceberg a lot is under the surface.

Knowing whats up with your feelings enables you to conciously make a change, assuming of course you want to.  Sometimes you might not want to shine the light brightly.

This process is pretty simple.  Just ask yourself “self talk”.  How am I feeling?  Thats the start.  You may find hidden fears or anxieties, or you are uncomfortable about external stimuli.

Being on top of your game, light shining brightly is the objective.  Understanding whats holding you back, if anything, allows you to adjust your behaviour so people will sense how alive and happy you are.

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

It’s not about winning or losing

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Growing up my parents used to say “It’s not about winning or losing, it’s how you play the game”. Seems like a good value to adopt.  Probably not for a professional athlete or olympic contender, but for an average person this is probably a good attitude (my own opinion anyway.

The Oscar Wilde Twist

I was reminded today, of a delightful twist on this common wisdom from nineteenth century playwright, novelist and poet, Oscar Wilde.

“It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you place the blame” – Oscar Wilde.

Tongue firmly in cheek

Yikes, stating the obvious.  Humour often has a foundation in truth and this statement truly resonates with me as a more accurate description of natural human behaviour.

Trying  hard and playing fair is a noble sentiment, after-all,however,  as I have noted before, for most folks, it is all about the royal me. What, me at fault, unlikely.

Living Together

Avoiding the laying of blame is probably a more effective way to collaberate with others.  Blame is a kind of attack.  It’s not unusual to get a response in kind.

And so the vicious circle begins – ” it’s your fault, is not” and so on.  A little witticism like this one from Oscar Wilde can often help us identify odd behaviours that we should avoid but actually sometimes just practice naturally.

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Winning – Skill or Desire

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The national hockey league season is about to begin.  This got me thinking about winning, is it skill or desire that drives the champion team.

Let’s take the Edmonton Oilers.    In the last six years they have had the worst record in of the league for four of those years and were a losing team in the other two.

In the last six years the Oilers have taken the first pick overall four times.  Few would argue that the skills of the player chosen as the first round – first pick  overall, are high.  So the Oilers have chosen at least four top tier highly skilled players, arguably all star material.

And I should note the 2014 pick was third overall while the 2014 was a respectable seven, still pretty high in the pecking order with lots of skilled players available at the time to choose from.

If talent were all that mattered these six players should make the Oilers a top tier team and a serious playoff contender (Even if they were traded it would be for good skills right).

The results from the 2015 pick are not in yet (we’ll see this season) but my prediction is the desire, that is the hunger for the title is still not there.

Psychology Matters

A colleague of mine once postulated if you can visualize the win, than you will (win that is),   All you need to do is see it, feel it and it is yours.  Skill matters of course but it is probably less than half the equation.   Your psychological state is a much a factor in success as ability.

Before I get a flood of comments about this statement it’s understood that the concept “if I think I can than I will” is not absolute.  But, it sure helps.

So What about those Oilers

As long as the fan’s fill the seats and the large salaries are paid out the Oilers drive to succeed, in a very competitive league will not be enough.

Were I making the first round picks none of them would be minor league or junior stars.  Selecting a player with unrecognized  potential and holding out the incentive of stardom and associated financial awards is far more likely to spark that drive and determination needed to win in the NHL.  That is, someone who is really hungry to prove their worth.

Most importantly is that success breeds success so all I need is one player to ignite the spark( that is with drive, desire and reasonable skill).  Everyone else on the team will step up.   Once the power of the team kicks in they become unstoppable.  Winning breeds winning.

The Oilers are trying the old formula – get the stars and and the rest will take care of itself.  Sadly, I don’t think that is true.

My prediction for this years Oiler’s – in the bottom four finishers.