1-Sentence-Summary: The Psychology of Winning teaches you the 10 qualities of winners, which set them apart and help them win in every sphere of life: personally, professionally and spiritually.
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Audio Summary
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You’ve heard it before: Winners focus on winning, losers focus on winners.
And it’s true. We read the stories of the world’s Mark Zuckerbergs, Bill Gates’s and Michael Jacksons and obsess about how they are different from us.
Maybe it’s time to focus on doing what’s necessary to win ourselves, don’t you think?
Originally released as an audio program by Denis Waitley in 1978 (!), The Psychology of Winning has reached over 100 million people.
He’s written over 15 books, but his 10 traits of winners still stand out today.
Here are 3 lessons that’ll help you turn yourself into a winner:
- Winning isn’t an action, it’s a lifestyle.
- Losers let things happen, winners make things happen.
- Winners win in every aspect of life.
Born to be a winner? I thought so!
Lesson 1: Winning isn’t an action, it’s a lifestyle.
First of all, let’s clarify what winning really means.
Waitley says it’s much more of a lifestyle, rather than an action.
Winners don’t always succeed, just like everybody else. But their attitude and mindset still make them come out on top eventually.
So really, being a winner is about having winning habits and a positive mindset, which helps not only you, but also the people around you.
For example, you can easily list a few habits you’d rather associate with losers, than with winners, like beating yourself up mentally, smoking, procrastinating, being lazy and wasteful with your time and always worried about the future.
To become a winner, strive to remove those habits and replace them with winning ones, like exercising regularly, managing your time well, taking up a side project, staying positive, enjoying your leisure time to the fullest and eating well.
This will make your own life a whole lot better and you’ll inspire others to become winners as well.
Lesson 2: Losers let things happen, winners make things happen.
“I guess I’ll just see what happens.”
How many times have you said that? Or heard a friend say it?
This little sentence is like a signed agreement to hand over the controls for your own life to someone else. The people who just “wait and see” end up letting things happen, as opposed to winners, who make things happen.
But when you let other people decide what happens for you, you’ll end up frustrated and bitter, because none of the things you wanted came true – because you didn’t implement them!
Winners have this crazy belief that they are in charge of their life.
Yes, there is always luck involved in everything we do.
Like Voltaire said:
Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.
Stop being a bystander in your own life.
Instead of just attending events, organize them. Instead of watching TV, create your own show. Instead of looking at pics on Instagram, upload them.
Take the reigns of your life into your own hands and you’ll feel a sense of control, like a true winner.
Lesson 3: Winners win in every aspect of life.
The best part of being a winner?
You win everywhere.
Winners are total people, meaning winning ripples through their entire life.
They’re not independent from the world, and because they see the big picture, they win at home, at work, at hobbies, at church, and basically wherever they go.
That’s partly because winners create other winners.
A winner will always have a winning team, i.e. a family who’s full of winners as well. You’ll respect and love your family, and always look out for the people you do business with, to make sure they benefit from you doing business with them.
Winners are very aware of both themselves and time. They know how they tick and how fast time ticks away, so they’re usually very present in the moment.
Instead of dwelling on past mistakes, they learn from them and move on, so they can enjoy the happy moments in the present. They’re not worried about the future or their death, because they understand life is short and that they still must follow their own roadmap.
Sounds good, doesn’t it?
The Psychology of Winning Review
By default, these 3 lessons are way too little to convey the goodness of The Psychology of Winning and its summary on Blinkist. Of course I’ll be cut short when there are 10 lessons in the book.
The summary is very very thorough and it feels like there are way more than 10 things in there. I remember researching a lot and listing out the 10 specific things separately, maybe I’ll share them as a bonus some time 🙂
In the meantime, I highly suggest you go on Blinkist and read this summary. It feels like a very comprehensive read about positive psychology and has a lot more power to help you create a positive mindset than most of the other books in this field.
Who would I recommend The Psychology Of Winning summary to?
The 17 year old who keeps being told he’s a loser in high school, the 31 year old who’s ready to take charge of her own life, and anyone who sometimes feels like a spectator in their own life.
Last Updated on July 28, 2022
