The Key to Success? Pushing the Reset Button.
It’s not about who you were a minute ago, it’s about who you chose to be a minute from now
Last night, I ate two huge pieces of pizza. Followed by a frozen waffle that was quickly microwaved and drowning in maple syrup. And it was divine. For two minutes. Because after those two minutes, I hated myself for the rest of the night. I had been determined to stick to my diet, and now I could literally feel the arm fat and jelly rolls growing on my body.
It is not a feeling I want to re-experience. But I know that as a human being who is all too fallible, I will eventually find myself walking down that road of shame again.
Because I don’t care how many self-help articles you read, how hard you work, or how determined you are, you will make mistakes. You will have moments of weakness. And while moments of weakness are natural and inevitable, a lifetime of weakness is not. It is a result that stems from feelings of emotional defeat and a refusal to restrategize and revise one’s actions to move towards success.
For example, even the greatest athletes make bad choices or have bad games. But what separates these master players from the mediocre ones? An ability to reset. Reset their emotions. Reset their thoughts. Reset their behaviors.
And they don’t wait to press that reset button. They do it immediately, right after the bad play. Right after the bad game. Right then and right there.
In order to achieve success, you need to do this as well. And if you can manage to hone this skill, you will achieve things you never thought possible. So here are a few tips on how to cultivate the mindset and behavior of a winner to make your life the best it can be.
Recover and Realign
When you do something that derails your progress, forgive yourself. This doesn’t mean acknowledging that the mistake was “no big deal” or accepting it as something that “just happens.” However, it does mean giving yourself credit for the good efforts you have been making and understanding that failure to perform at your will best will inevitably occur.
Why is this step so important? Because we tend to be very cruel scorekeepers to ourselves sometimes, and when we don’t forgive ourselves for our failings, we tend to believe the phrase “game over” in our heads. We convince ourselves that we will never get “it” right, whatever “it” is. And we give up.
But the fact is that the game is over only when you make it so. For example, if you’re dieting and you eat a doughnut for breakfast, you’re down 300 calories. But hey, it’s only the first quarter. You’ve got the rest of the day to recover. So realign your thoughts and behaviors.
What exactly does this mean? It means you look at things logically and not emotionally. It means you say to yourself, “It’s done. It’s over. I screwed up, but now I’m going to recover and repair the damage as best I can.”
Let’s continue the doughnut example. Say you packed a healthy lunch: a turkey and cheese sandwich and an apple. Get rid of the apple. That’s a gain of 100 calories. Later in the day, go on a thirty-minute walk. That’s another hundred calories at least. Then at your evening meal, cut one of your side dish portions in half.
Those three things, all of which are relatively painless, help you break even. For today. But guess what, there’s another game tomorrow, and you don’t just want to break even, do you? You want to win. So how do you do it? You replan.
Replan for Success
Okay. So yesterday you ate the doughnut, but you don’t want to make the same mistake again. So this requires some thinking ahead. A new game plan if you will.
Think of it like this. Every good athlete reflects on his or her performance, looking for ways to be better at his or her sport. For example, most if not all athletic teams watch videos of themselves, analyzing their weaknesses and figuring out what errors in thought or action were responsible for their less than optimal performance. So, analyze your own “gameplay.”
What made you give in to that doughnut? Was it the fact that you pass by the doughnut shop every day on your way to work? Then decide you will take a different route. Is it that someone brings doughnuts to the company breakroom every Friday? Make a plan to eat in your office that day. Is it that most days you don’t get up early enough to eat a healthy breakfast and then you “cave” on your way to work? Set the alarm twenty minutes earlier and eat a healthy breakfast, one that will make you less susceptible to temptation.
When you never take steps to analyze your negative behaviors, you are increasing the chances that they will happen again. Success is as much or more about thinking than acting, and if you leave this part of the equation out, you’re more likely to be defeated by circumstances that derail your progress.
Repeat
If only we could be winners and then simply rest on our laurels. But like most sports, there is always another game or an upcoming season in which we must reface our rivals. We may go undefeated one season, only to perform poorly the next.
So when we do find ourselves having the lower number on the scoreboard, we have to start from scratch. Lick our present wounds and remind ourselves of our past accomplishments. Restrategize based on the new temptations and situations in our lives that have the potential to set us back in attaining our goals. Then return to the field again and throw ourselves back into the game.
The Bottom Line:
Tom Landry, former professional football player and coach of the Dallas Cowboys for twenty-nine seasons, said that “setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” And a winning plan is one that recognizes the likelihood of setbacks but then also recognizes that each setback can be overcome through careful planning and relentless perseverance.
So what are you waiting for? It’s game time, and you’re the star player in your own life story. Now get out there and show yourself just how much of a winner you truly are.
Oh yeah, by the way, I’m rooting for you.