"He who reigns within himself
and rules his passions, desires, and fears is more than a King."
~ John Miltoni
i
"Winning Is A Habit. Unfortunately, So
Is Losing!" ~by Isaac "Ike"
Nuru
i
i
i
"Vince Lambardi,
famous football coach, stated in his speech, What It Takes
To Be Number One: "Winning is not a sometime thing; it's
an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you
don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all
the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing."
Those last two short sentences should be read again and taken
to heart. I have a copy of Coach Lambardi's speech in a frame
by my computer. When I first read those two insightful sentences:
"Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing."
It wasn't too difficult for me to believe that "losing" was
a habit. (smile) But I had never heard anyone say that "winning
is a habit."
I always thought
certain people won more often than others because they
were either blessed at birth or just plain lucky, including
great football coaches.
While growing up, it was impressed upon me that habits
were bad; everyone around me was always talking about
trying to break some kind of habit, i.e., smoking, cursing,
drinking, etc-all the fun stuff that many teenage boys
can't wait to do.
So when the greatest football coach of his era, maybe the greatest
football coach of all times-Winner of the First Two Super Bowls
and the Super Bowl Trophy is named after him, said that winning
was a habit- this caught my attention. Because I, and probably
millions of other young football fans, wanted to be winners
just like the Green Bay Packers! By the way, many of Coach Lambardi's
players have had very productive and successful lives off the
football field, too. This is not surprising once you know the
character of this great man.
As the years are
flying by like a tightly spiraling football thrown down the
field, the Coach's speech has taken on a more profound meaning
to me- -one of those --when the student is ready, the teacher
will appear moments. Now, I understand why certain unpleasant
things kept appearing in my life- over and over again. It was
my habit of negative thinking that attracted these unpleasant
events and feelings into my life that caused me so much pain.
And all the time I thought it was my parents, teachers, bosses,
co-workers, and even the weather that were causing my problems.
Wow, how naïve I was in my reasoning and didn't even know
it at the time. Blaming my failures on a false cause, that will
keep you wandering around in the wilderness for a while.
Over the years through much reading, seminars, tapes, etc, I
have learned that thought is the preamble to everything that
happens in your life. For example, just like a plant comes
from a seed; so does your action comes from the hidden seed
of your thought. Nothing in your life happens by chance; thoughts
are spiritual seeds and eventually they will spring into existence.
Everything that you see around you (external) that was created
by a human being got its origin (internal) in someone's mind,
i.e., thoughts. They saw it "the thing" first in their minds,
and now we see it in reality.
Both my life experiences and training has taught me that when
you expect good, it's constantly available and it makes itself
a reality in your life; unfortunately, the opposite is also
true. This Universal Law (as all the others) holds true regardless
if you're aware of it or not. It maybe cruel, but that is the
"Law," and these "Laws" deviate for no one and for no reason.
In other words, you are your thoughts; you become your thoughts;
so make sure you're focusing on what you want in life-not what
you fear.
How do you break these old negative habits and replace
them new positive habits?
When Coach Lambardi teaches us that "Winning is not a sometime
thing; it's an all the time things." Immediately afterwards
he states that, "You don't win once in a while; you don't
do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time."
The Coach is talking about breaking the old negative habits
that's causing you pain in your life and replacing them with
positive habits that will bring you the joy, happiness and success
that you are seeking and, rightfully, deserves-in all areas
of your life.
It is widely taught that it takes 21 days of repeating an action
to form a habit. Here is what Bob Proctor, author, international
best-seller, You Were Born Rich, teaches on this subject: "Any
thought you continuously impress upon your subconscious [mind]
over and over, becomes fixed…. Fixed ideas will then continue
to express themselves without any conscious assistance until
they are replaced. (Fixed ideas are more commonly referred to
as habits.)"
The key point
in Bob Proctor's teaching is that you have to replace
(not eliminate) your old habit(s) that you don't want
with new one(s). You must interrupt your old habit patterns
with different actions until your subconscious mind takes
over-now you've a new habit that has replaced the old
habit.
This is similar to exercising a muscle, over time the
muscle will become stronger. And if you stop exercising
a certain muscle, over time this muscle will become weaker,
and may even stop properly functioning.
Well that's how it works with habits. Consciously stop engaging
in the old negative actions and start engaging in new positive
actions and after 21 days or so, a new habit will be created.
This new habit will replace the old habit.
Why not try the 21 day test? Identify a habit that you want
to break; replace it with a positive habit. For example, maybe
you desire to do something simple like stop spending so much
time in front of the television and eating too much. From for
the next 21 days, keep a good book or your favorite magazine
next to the television remote control and bag of chips. Now
every time you feel the urge to watch TV and eat- consciously
pick up the book or magazine instead of the remote control-keep
doing this until you automatically reach for the book or magazine
without having to think about the action. When this happens
you have "fixed" the idea upon your subconscious mind and you
have, now, replaced your old habit (watching TV and eating)
with the habit of reading. This called a "breakthrough." Your
mental breakthrough is similar to the plant breaking through
the soil and growing towards the sun.
This new habit will remain until it's replace with another habit.
This process works for any habit you want to break and/or to
create.
Now that you have created this great new habit, how do
you stick with it over time?
First of all, you want to replace the enjoyment that you received
from your old habit; because if you don't, your brain will say
this is too painful and you'll go back to your old habit. Tony
Robbins, Getting the Edge, Power Talk…,personal
development and motivational guru, teaches that human beings
are basically motivated to take action for two reasons: To
avoid pain or to gain pleasure.And people will do a
lot more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. So the trick,
if you will, is to have your mind associate "massive pain with
continuing the old habit of watching too much TV and eating
too much while associating great pleasure with your new positive
habit of reading. Teach your mind to work with you not against.
There are many people who smoke that say they would like to
give up the habit of smoking, but never do. Why not? The main
reason is that they see themselves as smokers and they have
not associated massive pain with smoking; in their minds it's
the thought of quitting where the massive pain is placed. Like
Tony Robbins says people will do much more to avoid pain than
to gain pleasure. So this group of people keeps on smoking,
even though, they are keenly aware of the potential health problems
associated with the habit of smoking. [Read
More...]
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