6th in a series on the psychology of winning
Winners in life are set apart from the rest of humanity by one of their most important traits – positive self-direction. They have a game plan for life. They set goals. Winners are people with a definite purpose in life while others wander aimlessly through life or even self-destruct.
Humans need purpose. Dr. Victor Frankl, a psychiatrist in Vienna at the outbreak of World War II, was a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps for the duration of the war. During his three years of horror in Auschwitz and Dachau, Dr. Frankl studied both captors and captives during a time when he and his comrades were stripped of everything; families, professions, possessions, clothing, health, and dignity. Dr. Frankl’s knowledge is firsthand, and springs from objective evaluations of destitute humans living with the daily probability of death. His book, Man’s Search for Meaning, is based on these experiences.
His experiences brought him to make a sharp departure from the theories of Sigmund Freud. For example, Freud taught that individuals differed in outlook and attitude while healthy, but that if humans were deprived of food, their behavior would become more and more uniform; resorting to the level of their basic “animal-like” instincts. But Frankl states: “In the concentration camps we witnessed to the contrary; we saw how, faced with the identical situation, one man degenerated while another attained virtual saintliness.”
He noticed that men were able to survive the trials of starvation and torture when they had a purpose for their existence. Those who had no reason for staying alive died quickly and easily. The ones who lived through Auschwitz were almost without exception individuals who made themselves accountable to life. There was something they wanted to do. In the death camps inmates told Frankl they no longer expected anything from life. He would point out that they had it backward: “Life was expecting something of them”.
“Where there is life, there is hope.”
“Where there are hopes, there are dreams.”
“Where there are dreams, there are goals.”
Goals become the action plans that Winners dwell on. Achievement becomes automatic when the goal becomes an inner commitment. For many people, just getting through the day is their goal. As a result, they generate just enough energy to get through the day. They prefer to watch other people accomplish their goals. We become what we think of most of the time and unconsciously move toward achievement of that thought. For the alcoholic this could be the next drink, for the drug addict the next fix, for the surfer the next wave.
We all have the potential and opportunity for success in our lives. It takes just as much energy for a bad life as it does for a good life. And yet, millions of us lead unhappy, aimless lives. Like ships without rudders. Most people waste most of their waking hours majoring in minor things. They spend their time in low priority tension- relieving rather than high priority goal-achieving activities. Winners in life choose lifetime goals – what do I stand for, what would I defend to the end, what would I want people to say about me after I am gone? Winners don’t waste time. They plan their lives.
The secret to positive self-direction is establishing a clearly defined goal. Write it down and dwell on it morning and night with words, pictures, and emotions as if you had already achieved it.
Rhythm & Flow Tennis 