Winner's Image
Are you content with your present results? Do you have dreams? Would you like to win in life? Everyone likes to win. That is just a part of being a winner. Becoming a true winner, though, just doesn’t happen spontaneously. You are not a winner because you were born in a certain way or because the winner genes run in your blood. That is not the case.
A person may be more inclined to be a winner, but no one can really become a true winner until he or she makes a decision to be a winner. I had to do that in my practice. I had to come to a conclusion of why I wasn’t winning in my practice. Do you know it was so simple – I just had not made a decision to be a winner. If you make a decision to be a winner, I can guarantee you – you will win.
Sure, to become a winner takes some work. No, I’m not talking about spending hours and hours in practicing your business or sports or whatever hobby you’d like to win at. I’m just talking about maintaining your focus. Just focus on whatever it is that you want to win, and you are going to find out that part of the winning starts from first creating a thought in your mind that “I want to win. I really have that deep desire to be successful in whatever I do.” That is what a winner’s image is all about.
You must be able to just see it in your mind. Close your eyes, meditate and think about what you would like to be. What would you like to accomplish in life? It is so simple. No matter what job you are in, no matter what profession you are in, all you have to do is to create an image in your mind.
As children, we all had an image, we all had a dream; but we stopped doing those dreams. Why can’t you do that now? Create that image right now. Ignore everything around you. Just think, “I am going to win because I’m a winner” and it’s right there. You can go and grab it. And once you can create that thought and that picture in your mind, that is what I call the winner’s image.
You can go back thousands of years and recall all the heroes and winners of any time frame. The computer and the Internet and technology … that has nothing to do with it. It has to do with one’s frame of mind. You can go thousands of years and think about it: “How did these winners become winners?”
They became the winner because first, in their mind, they created that image to win. Winners are not born. You don’t have any special gene in you to make you a winner. Winners are created just like leaders. Leaders are not born; leaders are created the same way winners are created. All you have to do is to make a decision to be a winner and once you take that first step, you will be on the winner’s track.
Becoming a winner requires some work, and I’m not talking about running on the track for 10 hours or spending 15 hours in a workplace. No, that is not what I’m talking about, but it will require some work. In our modern society, we’re so used to having everything instantly. You want to go to a drive-in because you want a hamburger now. You put the water in the microwave and in seconds you have hot water.
Unfortunately, the winner’s image is not going to be created like this. It will require your effort. It will require some energy from you. In order to achieve greater heights, in order to achieve that real success and joy in life, it takes some committed effort. But you can do it. It doesn’t matter where you are born; it doesn’t matter what your background is; you have it in you.
The first step to becoming a winner is in your mind. You have to see yourself as a winner. Once you see in your mind that image of being the winner, your physical manifestation will come from there. So, this is the belief system; in your own mind you have to see that you are a winner. And remember, winners are not born. Winners are created.
So, you have to firmly implant it in your mind and see that win happening to you. Talk to any athlete; talk to any peer that you admire; talk with the people around you in your life that have an impact on you and they will all share that with you. Before they became a winner, their mindset was already there before it happened in the physical form. Saw the finish line even before they started. That is all it requires. So, in this program, The Essence of Life, we will take you up to that finish line. You must be able to clearly see exactly where you want to be before we start. This has always been the case. Every single winner, every single high achiever ... even the people who are not famous, even the people that you don’t know about who are, nevertheless, out there winning ... they had envisioned the finish line even before they started their journey.
The current facts in front of them, (bankruptcy, failure, job), did not stop them. That is what you need to do, too. Take your present results and forget about them. What you have in life right now is the result of the image you have of yourself right now. So, if you are going to change your image, this means new results are going to come; and therefore the present facts have no value.
Let’s forget about the present facts. Let’s start fantasizing your dream. I had to break the cycle in my thought process that “I’m not going to win. It is not for me.” I had to fight that and I had to think: “Yes, I can win. If he or she can win, so can I”. I know you can accomplish exactly the same thing.
But before I did this, I had to realize a few very strong principles. I had to strongly believe that I am capable of winning and yes, I do deserve it and yes, I’m willing to take action to win. If I’m willing to modify my life and I’m looking for better results, I have to work for it. But once it’s all said and done, there is nothing but glory coming your way.
I had to also realize that my inner voice had more power than the outside noises. Now, we are very accustomed to outside noises. We were always told who we were and what we could do and what we could not do. I call them “outside noises.” So, I had to learn to block those outside noises and listen to my inner voice. Once I started listening to my inner voice, that gave me the confidence that I can be someone. And I have become someone, at least in my eyes, and that’s all that really matters. It doesn’t matter what others think about me, I know how I feel and I enjoy it.
Winners often refer to a place within called the higher self. This is where an image of perfection exists that is continually attempting to express itself. So, once I listened to my inner voice, I took proper action. Not only did quantum leap growth occur, but it became one of those habits that I was just looking for – I was only looking for quantum leap. Nothing else – 5%, 10%, 15% – had any value for me anymore.
I’m going to share one story with you so you can understand where I started from. In 1977, I moved from Iowa to Chicago to do my specialty training at Northwestern. All the outer noises told me, “You don’t have any money. How are you going to go to Northwestern University?” I didn’t have money to go to school. I had no money to eat. I had no money to stay, but somehow, in my mind, I wanted to do that specialty training. I came to Northwestern with this energy and this excitement and this thought process in me, and I started my specialty training.
I had a professor there, by the name of Dr. Edward Brewin. One day he called me into his office and offered me a job to work on Sunday in the Cook County prison. That provided the means for me to survive and complete my program. The message in this story is that once you believe in YOU, then things are going to come from all directions, and you have no idea where they are going to come from. So believe in YOU, fantasize in YOU, create that image in you and then go on the journey. Avoid outside noises.
Now most of us will agree that Oprah, for example, is a winner. There’s no discussion about it. She’s on top of the world. She wasn’t born into the kind of family or circumstances that promotes this kind of quantum leap winning. When she started on her track, I’m sure she was not given a blueprint or roadmap, and nobody told her what to do, or where to go. But I am assuming that she must have had this awesome winner’s image within herself. She molded and created a winning attitude and image of herself and stayed focused on that aspect first. When she started taking real action in her life with that faith, with that strong winner’s image, and when she acted decisively with the inner knowledge that she would succeed, she did.
Now, you have to agree with me that she’s one of the most successful women on this earth. Every one of us has that potential. But for some reason, we put a cap on that dream. For some reason, we don’t want that winner’s image to come outside. For some reason, we all want to win, but we’re afraid to win. For some reason, we know we can win and we deserve it, but we’re afraid to take that first-a step going toward it. We’re afraid to leave our safety nest.
Once you believe in yourself, the same will occur in your life and it doesn’t happen just once. It happens all the time. No matter what your worthy and purposeful aim might be, the universe will show you how. Create that image in your mind and go for it.
I want to share something with you from my mentor, my coach and a fatherly figure in my life, Bob Proctor. As he taught me, “Anil, you don’t have to question it. You don’t have to know how. You don’t have to have a plan, you just have to have a belief in YOU and see yourself winning.” I’m very thankful to Bob for opening my eyes and showing me that road. It has been an awesome journey for me.
Even winners themselves might not consciously understand this, but the fact remains, your results are a direct reflection of your self-image. This reminds me of a great quote from James Allen’s book, As a Man Thinketh: “He thinks in secret and it comes to pass: environment is but his looking glass.” So, what you think about yourself has everything to do with the result you experience in your life. It is simply a direct reflection of your winner’s image. When you learn to harness this inner power, you truly achieve great things in life.
Psychologists and psychiatrists agree that the most important factor in attaining success in life is a healthy self-image. Self-image is at the heart of a person’s inner strength, and his and her ability to confidently reject a positive image outside. As they say, our outside is a mirror of what is inside. I heard that saying a long time ago, but I didn’t know what that meant. Now, I totally understand what that really means and how I can apply that to life.
People can cover up or wear masks, and walk around with their façade, but you know the reality is what is going on inside and shows in their results. Your self-image is your driver and unless you are consciously aware that you have the right to take over the control, your self-image driver itself is on autopilot.
Let’s talk about Dr. Maxwell Maltz. Dr. Maltz came up with the term “psycho-cybernetic.” The psycho-cybernetic system is the same “mental” system that is in an autopilot system or a plane. So, when you take off from city A to B, once the plane is in the air, the pilot is really not flying the plane. It’s on auto-pilot. Interestingly, 99% of the time your plane is off course, but this autopilot keeps bringing it back to the proper path to reach its destination.
Our self-image is like an autopilot. You will start creating a new image of yourself, but you are going to hear a knock from inside and it’ll say: “Hey, where are you going? Come back. This is where you belong.” That is your old self-image. You have to learn to avoid the outer noises (remember, we talked about this). Your body and your mind are going to try to take you back to where you were before because that’s what ‘psycho-cybernetic’ does.
It will be worthwhile to share one more small fact here. Your own psycho-cybernetic system was built in to your subconscious mind at a very early age. When we were children, our uncles, aunts, mom, dad, teachers, neighbors, and gym coaches created an image in our mind based on their perception. Their perception was based on two facts:
- How they perceived you; and
- More important, how they perceive themselves.
The combination of those over the years, gave us an image in our mind of who we are and that image will always bring you back.
I’m sure in today’s society just everybody wants to lose weight. And I’m sure you know enough people around you – maybe including you – who are always trying to lose weight. What happens? They lose a few pounds, then the next time you see them, they are bigger than before. What occurred here? They did not change their self-image. So, through will power, and through a physical and mental force, they were able to restrain themselves for a while from cookies, cakes or whatever, but their self-image inside was never changed.
So, let’s address this number one social problem of losing weight I am not an expert on this but it fits into our discussion on the ‘winner’s image’. In order for you to lose weight, you first have to create that image of yourself inside. Then at midnight, when everybody’s sleeping, that fridge in your kitchen is not calling you because you now have a new image of yourself. This new image is going to get rid of the old image and that is how you will lose weight.
Are you with me so far? Have you found something worthwhile that the winner’s image can do for you? The same thing goes for your personal life. The same goes with your business. Have you heard people say, “I wish that my wife wasn’t like that? I wish my husband wasn’t like that?” They have created an image of what to expect in their minds, and therefore that’s exactly what they get.
So, what happens if you change that image? Even if you’re not happy, just change the image and say, “When I go home today, she is going to be waiting for me with fresh flowers and hot tub or whatever.” I can guarantee you, if you keep thinking and believing that image, one day, to your surprise, it will happen. What you do after that ... let’s not talk about it here.
I want to share a few more things about my childhood. I had an awesome childhood. My Mom and Dad were the most loving people and they really gave us a wonderful childhood. I was very good at playing cricket, but my Dad used to always tell me, “Who do you think you are? You have no ability to play sports.” So, I ended up giving up cricket. I collected all my money from my piggybank and I bought a guitar. Dad said, “If you play guitar, all you are going to do is beg all your life.” Do you know now I don’t play any sports nor do I play the guitar. On the other hand, they gave me very high marks on my commitment to education and that is what I ended up doing.
The idea is that these types of messages will come to you from parents, relatives and childhood teachers, and they end up creating that self-image. Now, once you know this is what occurred to you, don’t go around blaming your mom and dad and teachers. They gave you what they thought was best for you because you were not capable of making wise decisions for yourself at that time. What you need to do is to take the responsibility for it. That is the first step in creating a winner’s image – taking full responsibility for who you are. Don’t believe social custom. Don’t believe certain types of stigma. Don’t pay attention to what people comment about who you are or who you should be. Just take the responsibility – because this is your life.
When I had a financial loss and when I had a family fiasco, I would say, “It’s not me. I’m never wrong.” And who was the easiest person to blame? My wife. Had I continued to do so, the relationship would have ended in a fiasco. So, stop blaming the situation. Stop blaming the economy. Stop blaming the Democrats or Republicans. Stop blaming the weather. Take full responsibility and start creating that image within you.
Once you create that image within you, it is going to be a transformation, which is going to really amaze you. You’ll be shocked at your own transformation – the way you are going to walk, the way you are going to talk, the way you are going to perform, the way you are going to create excellence in your work and even the way you are going to project yourself in front of other people. It is going to make a change and everybody else will be attracted to you. We all want to be around only successful people and you can be one.
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In order to make your life a little bit easier, I’m going to take you through certain exercises that will help you create a winner’s image for you. First, begin taking personal responsibility for everything in your life. Refuse to play the role of victim. You don’t need to beat yourself up for where you are, who you are and what you’re doing. Just take full responsibility. Once you take full responsibility, your self-image will operate at a very different level. Once you become responsible yourself, you have nobody else to blame, and that will open the doors for you for the next step.
Now, let’s go to the second part of this exercise – fantasize, fantasize and really fantasize big. This is about thinking big without limitations. Don’t allow your existing self-image to tell you who you are and what you can do. Just fantasize and forget about all the facts. Then, once you have completed fantasizing, I want you to take all that from your mind and transfer it to a piece of paper. Write it down. When you write it down, it not only brings in more precision, but it’s also out of your mind and on to a piece of paper. Then when you look at that paper, you will actually visualize yourself in the activity or place you’ve just written for yourself.
One thing you have to make sure: “Do I really want it, or am I doing it to make somebody else happy? If you’re doing it for someone else, it’s not going to work. It has to be for you and you only. So, the decision you have to make is: “That’s what I want, not what my wife wants for me, not my children, not my neighbors, but this is what I want.”
I’m going to also recommend a few other things you can do here to make this exercise more effective and help to put it on a faster track. You can even record yourself as to who you want to be, and then you can listen to that on recording, as an even better reinforcement.
Now, we did talk about the fact that our self-image and winner’s image is stored in our subconscious mind, and this is fed by your conscious mind. So by writing, then reading, then listening to your own tape of who you want to be, it will reinforce this into your conscious mind which, in turn, is going to send that image into your subconscious mind. Then before you know it, you are going to become The One you want to be.
Now, before you do anything further, make sure you review what you have written quite often and do not hesitate to change it, improve upon it, or add to it. Don’t let your present situation stop it from going to any extreme, because the universe has an abundance to give to you. Do you know the universe is more anxious to give to you than you are ready to receive?
I just want to give you one caution: Do not wish for things that you know cannot happen. For example, I say, “I wish I had not done that 20 years ago,” or “I wish I wouldn’t have invested that money,” that’s going back to being a victim. That’s turning away from responsibilities. So in the winner’s image, we’re talking about things you’re going to do from this time forward, not what occurred in the past.
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I will strongly advise you not to talk about your past losses. Don’t talk about your misfortunes. Don’t talk about your broken relationships you had in the past. Just talk about where you want to be and that will reinforce your subconscious mind. That is what this winner’s image is all about.
H. L. Hunt said it very precisely: “Decide what you want. Decide what you are prepared to give up to get it. Set your mind to it. And then get on with the work.” That means that the first step is Decision – you have to decide that you want a better life. If you want the better life, then listening to this alone will not help unless you take some action. Now, take some time to finish these exercises and believe me, you will start to see the results before you know it. This is Dr. A. Thank you.