13 Ways to Turn Defeat into Success.

Ever find someone that always looks like he wins — no matter what he does?  You try and try (and try) and this guy seems to roll over and hit home runs.

No matter what he does (whenever he does it), that guy seems to end up in the winner’s circle.

Guess what?  You can do that too…

With a few small changes, you can be that guy.  You just need to start looking at the world a little differently.

Let’s Start at the Beginning.

Here’s a reality of life:

You will always fail before you succeed…

That’s why you cried before you could talk.  You stumbled and fell before you could run.  You went to grade school before high school.  And you fell off your bicycle before you learned to “pop a wheelie”.

Right?  Life was a process back then.  Your whole life was about turning defeat into success.  That’s all you knew how to do.  And you were really good at it.

It was over time that you started to think about avoiding defeat at all costs.

But Then you Noticed Something.

The more you avoided defeat, the more success seemed to be even farther away.

You lied to yourself to soften the blow.  You started blaming others to shift the guilt.

You stopped being risky, brave, courageous, or bold.  You stopped taking chances, because chances mean room for defeat.

The more you tried not to fail, the more you found yourself headed that direction.

You Can Change All Off That.

And you can change it right now.

It’s just a different perspective.  A few of them, in fact.  You don’t need a better degree from a better college or a new job with a different boss.

You need to take everything you have ever learned from defeat and turn it into success.

And here are the top 13 ways to do that:

1. Ask for help — You are so close to the action that you are probably an unreliable (and unemotional) resource for yourself.  Ask someone else their opinion.  Advice is free.  Can’t hurt to ask.
2. Admit that it’s a failure — Stop the mental paralysis around convincing yourself that you might not have “really” failed.  You did.  It stinks.  Let the healing begin.
3. Try to fail fast — Do a lot of rapid activity fast.  Plan to fail and bounce down the paths where you end up being successful.  As long as you’re flexible, you’ll find yourself winning.
4. Use a different angle – What you last did, did not work.  Don’t give up your goal.  Try a different process.  Look at the situation from a different angle, and then execute a different plan to get you there.
5. Be brutally honest – You did this.  No one else.  If someone has to “suck”, it’s you.  The good news is that you are the best person available to get yourself out of this mess. Stop selling yourself short.  You’re actually kind of a bad-ass.
6. Double-down your effort – It’s either what you did or how hard you did it.  Most of the time, it’s the latter one.  Do everything you were doing before just put in 5 times as much effort — literally.
7. Learn from your mistakes — There is something wrong here.  Maybe it’s the timing, the goal, reality, or just the scope of your vision.  Why did you fail in the past?  There’s something you can learn from that right now.
8. Throw a fit – Curse, swear, and get emotional about your success.  There is something cathartic about focusing your emotion around success.  It reminds you that you really “want it”.  It takes the sting out of defeat.
9. Shrug it off — Get over it.  Seriously.  And fast.  The longer you obsess over defeat is the longer you waste not being successful.  We all lose.  It happens.  Stop focusing on your fears and be thankful you are smart enough to fail in the first place
10. Go fight a ninja with nunchucks – Blow off some steam.  Do something crazy.  Let your mind clear.  Pursue another passion.  Be extreme.  It all reminds you why you want this success in the first place.
11. Create a task list — Start small.  Write down what success looks like and then work backwards from there.  Turn that list into chores that you put on a calendar and execute.
12. Write it all down – Your thoughts.  Your passions.  Your fears.  Write it all down.  That process allows you to be in control.  It’s no longer in your head.  It’s on paper.
13. Decide to smile — You are alive and you are a winner.  That’s something to smile about.  And if you follow the other 12 items on this list, you are about to be successful as well.  Why wouldn’t you be happy?

Success is Right Around the Corner.

It’s just behind that ugly monster called defeat…

And just a little in front of that dream you call “limitless possibility”.

It could be that next big sales deal or that partnership or promotion you’ve been working for — Are you ready to start being successful?