by Robert Wood, Social Media Advisor – Prison Scholar Fund
Innately, human beings thrive to succeed at everything we do. Unlike animals, mere survival is not enough for us and competitiveness is a part of our psyche whether it’s collective or individual success which we’re pursuing. In collectivist societies, like China, everything is aimed at the good of society as a whole. In individualist societies, like the U.S., we compete more often on the individual level. However, in both cases human beings are wired to win. In some situations we must define winning more clearly so that we understand what a win actually entails. This is the subject I will discuss now. In order to be wired to win you need a definitive goal, knowledge of the things necessary to realize that goal, and the will to press on despite obstacles, setbacks, and rejections. You were born wired to win. If for some reason that wiring has been compromised don’t worry; you can re-wire yourself and start winning now.
In the process of re-wiring yourself to win you must first look at your most important goals, put them in the form of a mission statement, and clearly define them. A good example of this would be someone saying they want to become a dynamic business person. In that situation they must look at the goals attached to accomplishing this master goal and begin to quantify and create timelines for those accomplishments. A good example of that for a business person would be as follows: making your supporting goals things such as earning a Bachelor’s Degree in business administration, or an MBA within the next five years, and getting a job that allows you to learn more about business within the next six months or getting involved in network marketing within the next ninety days so you can learn about business hands on. Even in this example someone who is truly wired to win may aspire to all three goals because winning is an undertaking which takes effort, will, and dedication. Once you create your goals and begin to actively pursue them, you must do so with rigor and constantly engage in self-talk (where you discuss mentally or even verbally in the mirror with yourself what you are doing and why). This is a great opportunity for re-wiring the positive choices necessary to succeed. At this time positive affirmations should be plentiful and any mistakes should be evaluated and reconciled.
If for some reason you have been told that winning isn’t important please can that notion. Winning is very important and it’s important to allow yourself to define what winning is. Remember, you can win by trying if that is the way you define winning, but someone who is now wired to win will not allow them self to define anything less than a best effort to constitute a win. In the process of best efforts admittedly, you will have some failures and losses along the way, you must at some point define winning as actual victory and rigorously pursue it. In this case the strength of your will and your hunger for success will be two very important elements. Your goal must be pursued relentlessly and any impediments or setbacks must serve only as opportunities to learn and strengthen your will to win. Remember, you can win in increments. That is to say you can win by successfully accomplishing incremental goals which are tied to your master goal(s). This is how you start winning right now. The totality of your incremental goals should have the aggregate effect of accomplishing your master goal and that will be the big win you have now re-wired yourself for. You were born to win. That is a part of the human DNA. Please re-wire yourself and let’s win. After all, you are innately wired to win.
Robert Wood, our Social Media Advisor, is a volunteer for the PSF. His Tweets can be found on Twitter, @prisonscholars, account under the hashtag #RLW_PSF. He can be reached via any of our social media outlets or emailed at the following address: rlw@prisonscholars.org.
If you’d like to hear more from Robert, please sign up for our quarterly newsletter, where he is a valued contributor. Just submit your name and email address. If you’d like to get involved with the PSF in a volunteer capacity, please email us volunteer@prisonscholars.org.
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