Winning is a habit.

"Winning is a habit. Watch your thoughts, they become your beliefs. Watch beliefs, they become your words. Watch your words, they become your actions." Vince Lombardi

Watching your thoughts is seeing through the looking glass and seeing the world open up around you. You see a depth you can't believe. You watch them so close your eyes start to dilate and cause your eyes to convulse and constrict the blood vessels in your brain causing a concussive realization that life is more than just words. Then they crystalize into beliefs. The belief that winning isn't everything it's the only thing. The mindset that you have to have to make winning a habit takes more than just words. It takes action. Those words of cold hard truth whispered into my psyche; that I wouldn't lose and do whatever it takes to win was happenstance and weary, but the whispers turned into nomenclature wrapped into a shout of derision evoking a winning mindset. This winning was harder to achieve than I had ever imagined. It took discipline, fortitude, and sacrifice. To go to hell and back.

Practice just wasn't practice anymore; it was a training ground to the goal at hand. The belief that I had was so strong it ripped the train right off the tracks. This belief wasn't developed yet, because I had a laundry list of losses to contend with; as I said before winning wasn't easy. But my goals to win were just words at the time and they didn't mean anything until I put them into action. Keeping that mindset that I can, I will, and make it happen weren't forged until I developed a habit. That habit came out a decision to win at all costs. Those costs were high. My words were my beliefs and my actions were the result of my thoughts; which I had painstakingly observed from the tower. The thought became what my mind was trying to tell me it said don't lose focus of the goal. The goal was mired into a deep conscious thought. The thought became my belief. It was the belief that if I believed in it strong enough it would become truth and that realization would become real. The reality and my beliefs were mine.

It took every command and observation of my brain to hold that mindset into action. What do words mean and what value do they hold? Was my grammar correct; did it pose a question. The question was this when will my words become actions and when did my thoughts become beliefs and how did I get there. Where was my map? When was the exact moment in time did my thoughts harden and become the beliefs that I hold to be self evident. My beliefs are those from my environment crashing and crashing into my psyche. The environment and the arguments from the people who I became to trust changed and modified my belief system. It was time to decide was I a direct result of my environment or did evolution play a role. The evolution that created my thoughts were the result of my wanting to win. My coach had preached and was I ready to follow. His plan his game was it mine. Was I his apt pupil. Was I his student of philosophy or was it my mindset my philosophy my beliefs that I was committed to win. Committed to my belief system which were a result of my thoughts. Those thoughts which came from my desire to win. Those principles were etched taught and passed down into my mindset and became my belief. I chose to follow it or disregard it. I chose to win or lose. I chose to work or give up. It was my decision. I chose the hard road. The icy hard cold road paved with a mindset to win and that took a focus a visualization of a belief that finally awoke and breathed life into an action. It was the action that became truth, reality, and finally a habit. That habit eventually turned itself into a win. That win culminated from practice, practice, perfect exhausting practice, and my mindset which came from my belief, my positive mindset backed by grueling work. Hard work. The work that is tried and true your best effort. The work that you put in day after day putting that dinner on the table. The work that provides for your family and sets them up for success, and the work you put into win one more time because it was your thought and your belief that it was all worth it in the end. It was worth it in the end. The running, the sacrifice, the time, it was all worth it. That whisper you had imagined into your head that became the thought developed into a belief, and your words became something. Something worthy of a win. The something appeared to you in the present became focused and told you to do it. To do it and to do it; just do it. The written word started running off the page and became a spark which turned into an ember, glowed, lighted and became a fire. The fire that would emblazon the next victory and the victory after that. It would spark a revolution. A revolution demanded by your thought pattern which gained those wins. That finally became a habit. Those three weeks of discipline had turned into a year and a year after that doing the time honored same disciplined actions necessary to win. The fundamentals turned into effort, work and finally perfection and improvement from the beginning and always improving that mindset, that thought, that belief and with it to action. The fundamentals were the heart that pumped blood into every area of the body to perform its best at the moment. The visualization of a mind perfected to draw those thoughts into action. The body that follows the mind and with it the belief that carried me to the finish line. That extra pursuit of the goal, the extra time, the extra effort and the mind determined from the whispered belief that came from an imagination guided by your thought. The thought that it could happen, the thought that the four minute mile was possible. The belief the aching punishment striking the embers of the mind constantly telling you to push to go further and then with every ounce of effort until your body collapses after hitting that finish line, leaving everything you had on that field. You just did the impossible and ran that four minute mile because it was the direct belief that was forged into your soul and you knew that you could do it. You pushed harder and harder than you thought possible because your mind challenged the former belief that it couldn't possibly go any further, and your mind finally without reason pushed passed the pain and did push pass that moment of quit. Winning is a habit, but it's a trained habit from the direct result of a winning focus determined not to settle for less. Not to settle for that loss. Knowing that you left nothing behind and your happy with your results and that you did your best and that your a winner. That effort determined work made you better and better and directed you to that win. Now the winning turned into a habit.