To become a constant winner in life, you have to understand first what winning looks like. And it’s not only about “Finishing First”. This is only one type of winning, specially when it comes to winning in the game of life.
There are 5 types of winning in life that I call the 5 faces of winning, which you should be aware of and use starting today. Each of these faces can be used in different situations to fight and win the battles of life.
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What does winning in life mean?
Winning in life means simply living the life you desire, happy and satisfied with, by achieving your life’s goals across all Wellbeing dimensions
Some call it “winning at life” or “winning at the game of life” which in a way resembles “life” to a “game” like a “football” game that has winners and losers, and that is okay with one condition..
To understand that unlike football which has a specific duration and ends with all participants still being alive, the game of life is an infinite one that keeps going till end of life.
This is to say that life goals should be a long-lasting ones or infinite ones with short term milestones that help fulfilling the overall picture.
If you understand this distinction, then you can call it “win at life” as well as “win in life”
Relation to Wellbeing?
The goals you need to achieve to have the life you dream about, are created at the Spiritual Wellbeing dimension, and achieved by the remaining Wellbeing dimensions as follows:
Spiritual Wellbeing: Mainly responsible for creating your life’s goals, purposes, across all wellbeing dimensions to be achieved by the relevant wellbeing toolkit, and it could include spiritual related goals to be achieved within the spiritual wellbeing dimension itself.
Mental Wellbeing: Could have a Mental related goal(s), or could be responsible for managing mindset, time, stress, overall projects, and learning
Physical Wellbeing: Could have a Health-related goal(s), or could be responsible for keeping you healthy and alive to achieve your life goals
Financial Wellbeing: Could have a Money related goal(s), or could be responsible for funding needed steps to win at your life game
Social Wellbeing: Could have a connection related goal(s), or could be responsible for managing your relationships with others
Emotional Wellbeing: Could have a positive feeling related goal(s), or could be responsible for managing your emotions and feelings throughout the game
Why it’s important to win?
Winning in life has many benefits, some of them are intrinsic, and some of them are extrinsic.
Intrinsic benefits are about boosting your confidence, and mood, while extrinsic benefits are more about eminence, respect, and admiration by others.
That’s why we all seek winning whenever we have a chance, to have more and more of those benefits for a better life.
Does it mean losing or failing is bad?
Only if you associated it with “Failure”. See, I always say that “losing or failing” and “loser or failure” are different. The former are verbs that teach us how to win, while the latter are adjectives that prevent us from doing so.
Losing and failing are a natural step in the winning process.
Let me emphasize on that again… Losing and failing are a NATURAL step, yes. It is absolutely OKAY to lose or fail one or few times before you start seeing some winning.
When you lose, you, with the right mindset you’ll have from the Mental Wellbeing, can identify why this happened, and what to do to win the next time.
Babies fail few times when they start walking before doing it perfectly
We all fell down few times when we rode the bikes for the first time before we started riding it hands-free and doing stupid stunts
War leaders deliberately lose battles as a strategy to tick their opponents and win the war
Loser and Failure on the other hand, are “LABELS” you give yourself that describe you as “damaged good” or “Not meeting the criteria to win in life”
The opposite of “loser and failure” is “winner and successful”
Bottom line is, Winning and Losing are strategies while Success and Failure are outcomes. It’s okay to accept both strategies, and one outcome, the success one.
The 5 Faces of Winning
So how many types of winning are there?
Isn’t it only about being first at something?
No it’s not, let’s discover the 5 faces or types of winning in life.
1- Being First
This is the widely known type of winning. This is how you and I were raised, trained, and taught. To win,
- You must finish the race first
- The first one to finish his plate will have a toy
- The first one to answer this will be the winner
- The first one to achieve the target will be awarded, etc.
…. I’m sure you have few examples from your own experience as well.
This type of winning is accompanied by having losers. It’s a Win-Lose situation. If someone is winning, then others are losing.
When to use this type of winning?
You use it if you’re competing with others for a single spot or rank., like being the first in class, or being promoted to a manager at work, or winning the gold medal in sport.
In these kinds of competitions, there’s one spot to be filled so it’s normal to have only one winner and the rest are losers (not failures… thought of reminding you here :D)
2- Participation
When you participate in something, you’re winning already, because you’re taking part of something. You’re taking an active step with chances of winning or losing.
The alternative is not participating which doesn’t have any chance of winning at all.
That’s why in most sport events or school competitions, all participants are recognized for being part of that event with a certificate or a symbolic gift
When to use this type of winning?
You use this when you’re competing with yourself mainly, and others, in all battles or games in your life. This should be a reason for you to participate in any competition or non-competition events that can lead the improvement of your wellbeing and life.
Participating in that weight competition or weight program you know is a winning cause you have more chances of winning that not participating in it.
3- Crossing the finishing line
So you decided to participate in something. That’s a winning. Crossing the finish line of that something is also a winning.
Crossing the finishing line has also more chances of winning first places. Using this strategy in competitions can lead to you winning the 2nd or 3rd places which is still huge.
In sports 2nd and 3rd places are more awarded than the rest. In work, being among the first 3 or 5 can qualify you to being promoted if more slots are available.
When to use this type of winning?
When you’re competing with others for a few spots available
When you’re competing with yourself in all battles or games in your life. Joining the weight program is a win, and reaching your goal is winning regardless if you finished first or not.
4- Last man standing
Some games in life doesn’t have a clear finish line or ending time. That’s why, this type of winning is also important to understand.
Having a successful business is about persistence and being the last man standing in this game. Having a good health is about lifelong choices.
When to use this winning?
You use this when competing with others and yourself in the infinite games in life, your health, success, achievements, parenting, relationships, etc.
Having a successful blog or YouTube channel, is about continuing to write or make videos and be there for your audience longer than what others do to have the effect you desire.
If your goal is to improve your health and fitness, then you have to be persistent with healthy choices longer than others to reap results
5- Better than yesterday
Always Be Better Than Your Yesterday’s Version
WellBeing Toolkits
This is one of the Golden rules that I embrace myself and always make sure it’s planted in my sons’ minds. Always be better than your yesterday version
I originally learnt this from Jordan Peterson in his book, 12 Rules For Life, rule 4;
“Compare Yourself To Who You Were Yesterday, Not To Who Someone Else Is Today”
Jordan Peterson
Competing with someone else isn’t always the right thing to do, specially if the competition is centered around your wellbeing or life.
When to use it?
When the competition is centered around your wellbeing and life, and it doesn’t have a finish line.
Examples are; your improving your health and fitness, your finance situation, your learning, your sense of purpose and serve to others, success, etc.
You may be wondering what’s the difference between “better than Yesterday” and “Last man standing”?
Last man standing is about being LONGER in the game, while Better than yesterday is about being BETTER in the game. And you need both.
How to be a winner in life?
As we agreed above, winning in life means living the life you desire, and in WellBeing Toolkits, I believe that taking care of your wellbeing and its dimensions is the only way you can achieve your “winning in life” goal.
By understanding each dimension, knowing its toolkits and tools, and applying them, you’ll be empowered and equipped to win.
For now, let me give you a hint on what I mean by that. To win in life you need to do the following in each Wellbeing:
Spiritual
This wellbeing dimension helps with creating goals for your life. Examples are:
- Plan your life right
- Improve your relationship with God (if you’re a believer)
- Give more than you Take
Mental
You’ll rely heavily on the mental wellbeing toolkits to achieve your goals since it has the fundamental tools needed to achieve any goals as follows:
- Choose the right mindset
- Be productive to manage your projects and tasks
- Manage stress to live better
- Learn continuously
Physical
It’s a no brainer that your body is one of your most important assets. Keeping it healthy and working supports you on your mission to achieve your goals.
Being sick on the other hands keeps you away from your goals as it drains energy, money, and time you need.
- Exercise
- Eat right
- Preserve your health
- Sleep right
Financial
If wellbeing is your vehicle, then financial wellbeing is your gasoline that keeps it going.
Having solid financial wellbeing is crucial in your journey. You may need funding to initiate your business, or need money to join the gym or avail the type and number of meals needed, buying your dream house will definitely needs more money, etc.
That’s why you need to have the following tools:
- Manage spending
- Making money
Note that I used the word “may” as money isn’t and shouldn’t be what’s holding you on, specially in the basic things you need, and there are other ways you can do these things for free till you’re able to upgrade your game.
Social
Achieving your goals will need interaction with other persons, and you need to know how to do it the right way.
Your promotion or your dream job will depend, to a part, on your communication skills with your team.
- The important tool here would be managing your relationships with others
Emotional
Your journey is going to be full of ups and downs and you have to be sure how to manage and control your emotions through the rough times.
The important tool here would be about managing your emotions with yourself and others
Those are the main ways you can win in life by acting on all your wellbeing dimensions, not just one.
Keep following us to learn more about these tools
What to do Next? 5 Things
1- Update Your Goals
Add a goal about “Improving Your Wellbeing” to your To-do List or to the system you’re using to manage your life
2- Create Projects
Come up with all the projects you need to fulfill these goals
3- Identify next actions
Come up with all the next actions that you can do right now to finish these projects and park them in the right place in your system
4- Seek Support
If you want additional and quick help to setup or check your system then you can check my Productivity Trainer options
If you’re looking for someone to talk to about your goals and life, then you can check my WellBeing Coaching options.
Conclusion
- Winning in life means simply living the life you desire, happy and satisfied with, by achieving your life’s goals across all Wellbeing dimensions
- Winning in life has many benefits, some of them are intrinsic like boosting our mood, and some of them are extrinsic like gaining respect from others.
- There’s a distinction between “Losing or Failing” and being a “Loser or Failure”. The former are verbs and are normal to have, and the latter are adjectives and not normal to be.
- There are 5 types of winning in life not just one, the “be first” one.
- To fight the battles of life and win you have to be equipped in all your wellbeing dimensions.
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