Mindset Monday 8/29/11- How to Bounce Back from a Loss

You are a human, you make mistakes. There is a simple but effective way to deal with ALL loses, errors, mistakes, etc:

extract the lesson, commit the lesson to memory, forgive yourself, and move forward with confidence.

It is important that you do not repeat your mistakes, so you should note your shortcomings and downfalls. It is counterproductive to live in denial and suppression is almost never long term efficient. Recognize your flaw first and commit it to memory.

But after you recognize your mistake and commit it to memory you must, must, must forgive yourself. Successful people forgive themselves. Unsuccessful people do not.

Now I must draw a distinction here. Many successful people send the seemingly contradictory message- "never accept failure" or something similar to that.

It is important to note that these people are probably referring to not denying reality as we spoke about above. They are also telling you never to quit and to always keep moving forward and striving to get better.

To be successful, you must put mistakes behind you so you can proceed forward toward your goals. You cannot preoccupy yourself with "the last time you tried." Many athletes and teams have made this mistake of letting another team or individual, "beat them again."

Don't let someone beat you twice. Don't let a mistake cause another mistake. Recover. Forgive yourself and move forward confidently.
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Do not let a mistake or loss end your effort. Do not let it hurt your confidence. Easier said than done, sure. But this is what you need to learn how to do.

Remember, successful people make more mistakes than unsuccessful people. Successful people go for it a lot. Unsuccessful people hide behind fear, excuses and past war stories.

Gene Zannetti
Peak Performance Specialist
genezannetti@gmail.com
908-337-6143
genezannetti.blogspot.com

Mindset Monday 8/8/11- Ditch Your Excuses Now

MY high school wrestling coach, the great Steve Giordano (NJ State Champ & college All-American) would always tell us, “never give yourself an excuse to lose.” You do not want anything holding you back when you compete.

If you choose to compete, If you choose to do anything, you must eliminate all excuses.

In Sport Psychology, they call this “Self-handicapping.” When we know failure is a possibility, we will tell ourselves and others excuses or reasons why we are not at our best- we’re hurt, tired, went out last night, haven’t practiced often enough, etc. etc. We try to justify to ourselves and others that if the conditions were different, we would succeed. In essence, we blame the potential loss, on circumstances, not ourselves. We do this so if we do lose, we feel better about ourselves and so others do not look down on us.

In the great movie Peaceful Warrior, we hear- courage is not about protection, or victory, or invulnerability, but absolute vulnerability- that’s the only true courage.

Superman cannot be considered brave. This is because he is invulnerable. You can be considered brave, because you are vulnerable. Let this sink in. Your humanity, your imperfections, your mistakes, your infallibility, is what makes you brave. Because unlike superman, you can look at the possibility of failure, and proceed anyway.
Here is the key. Do not celebrate your vulnerability to yourself or others. Just move toward your goals. If you give yourself an excuse to lose, to yourself or others, you will always have the excuse in the back of your mind, and when the g
oing gets tough, you may use it as an excuse to not give your full effort.

You want to give your full effort at all times. Since after all, giving your full effort will maximize your chances of success. If you lose, you lose. If you make a mistake, you make a mistake. You are human, just like anyone else. Nothing you or anyone can do can make you or anyone else subhuman, or superhuman. Remember this. You do not need to make excuses for yourself. You will not always be at your best. Give a full effort anyway. Ditch your excuses, and move toward your goals, period.

Gene Zannetti
Peak Performance Specialist
One-on-One Consultation and Motivational Speaking
(908) 337-6143
genezannetti@gmail.com
Visit My Blog- http://genezannetti.blogspot.com/

Mindset Monday 8/1/11- The Surest Way to Be Successful...

The surest way to become successful is to become Fanatical.

If you want to learn anything or become successful at anything, you must engage in more than practice, you must engage in IMMERSION. You must become immersed in what you want to succeed in. You must give your life to your goal. you need to make it your life. Immersion comes from a Fanatical attitude. This will not be easy, but it will work.

If you look at the best people in different fields, you will usually find someone who is obsessed with the subject, topic, or sport. If you make the decision to become Fanatical in your approach, you may not become the best in the world, but YOU WILL BECOME SUCCESSFUL. Decide now that you will make a lifestyle of your goal. Commit to working harder than anyone else. Commit to working longer hours than anyone else.

Being Fanatical is a real dedication to make your goal your life. You make all your decisions based on if it will get you closer or further away from this goal.
You will have to give up many things along the way. You may miss out on a lot of fun times. But, if you have a goal that you feel that you absolutely must achieve, you need to become Fanatical.

Give 100%, become obsessed, immerse yourself, and you will certainly get more out of yourself than you otherwise would have. Going Fanatical works. Ive never seen Fanatical fail.

Gene Zannetti
Peak Performance Specialist
One-on-One Consultation and Motivational Speaking
(908) 337-6143
genezannetti@gmail.com
Visit My Blog- http://genezannetti.blogspot.com/