Win by Being a Winner

I went to the cemetary to see my mom yesterday. I looked at the inscription on her nitch. It said, as I had chosen it, "Strength and Courage...mother, friend, inspiration". I'm facing dark times and worrisome conflicts. I told her I needed her strength and courage to get through all of this. Then some thoughts popped into my head, and my mind began moving in a familiar direction. I came home and wrote them down, and this is what they were:

To use the analogy of the alcoholic, once an alcoholic always an alcoholic...the same goes here, once a winner always a winner. Just as the alcoholic has the potential to fall off the wagon and drink again, even when doing well in life, so too does the one-time winner, even though going through trying times when all seems lost, have the potential, on the perceived trail to failure, to "fall off the wagon" and win again. Even the concept of "failure" is not real but a deception. It is a deception of perception because an interruption on the course to winning need not be a barricade, or even an obstacle, but merely a speed bump. Speed bumps may slow you down, but they can't stop you.

Once a winner, always a winner. Even when losing, the potential to win is still there deep inside. And with the potential already there, there is hope and opportunity.

When I was a photo lab manager at Eckerds, I had an amazing and unbeatable streak of winning 5x7 and CD sales contests. Other managers referred to me as the one who kept beating them. Each time a new contest began, prior to its beginning, I always told my store manager that I was going to win. I never said I am going to "try" to win. And I never did try to win. Ever. I always said, "I'm going to win this contest." I knew I was going to win. Other managers knew they would not beat me. They tried, oh they tried, but they never beat me. Not because I tried harder, for like I said, I never tried; but because I decided in my heart beforehand that I was the winner. I pushed to win, but I didn't try to win. I just won.

On Dagobah, Luke Skywalker faced a great obstacle. He told Yoda, "I'll try." But his determination to "try" was his failure. Yoda told him, "Try not. Do, or do not, there is no try."

I never tried to win the sales contests; I just won them. I set it in my mind before the contest began that I was the winner. So I won even before the race began. I was not a winner because I had won; I won because I was a winner.

I'm going through deep trials right now, and it feels like my life is falling apart and I'm about to lose everything. I already have lost so much. It feels like I'm on the shaky wagon on the wagon trail to failure. But once a winner always a winner, even when the deceptive cloud of defeat seems dark. Winning a race is not what makes you a winner. Being a winner is what wins the race. And I still have that inside me. I'm not fully sure where, but I know that it's there. And you have it in you too.

It is time to fall of the wagon…and win again.

BTW, thanks mom.